Easter Attacks : Defence Ministry reveals who is “Sonic Sonic”

September 22, 2023 at 10:05 AM

The Sri Lankan Government has confirmed the existence of undercover operations involving Military intelligence officers within the terrorist network linked to the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks.

Addressing Parliament on Thursday (Sep 21), Acting Defence Minister Premitha Bandara Tennakoon said the individual identified as ‘Sonic Sonic’ among the terrorists linked to the attacks was in fact an intelligence officer who was on an undercover operation.

“This intelligence officer skillfully entered the terrorist network and extracted vital information for the government. He posed as a terrorist. That is how one should operate among terrorists and not pose as a Police officer,” he said. 

Acting Minister Tennakoon further said that several more undercover operations will have to be conducted with officers entering terrorist networks in order to extract information about potential future attacks.

“There is no other way. Parliament must understand this. Please stop making this political,” he requested from the House, while reprimanding the opposition for failing to understand the nature of undercover operations.

Acting Minister Tennakoon questioned how military intelligence officers could be requested to engage in such missions in the future, when the country was bent on penalizing them for their efforts.

The Acting Defence Minister also made a revelation on the name “Adu Hindh”, stating that it was linked to the online platforms used by Easter attacks mastermind Zaharan and his network for their activities.

“Zaharan and his network used online platforms for their activities. This ‘Adu Hindh’ is a pseudonym that was used by an international intelligence agency to get in contact with this group of extremists and extract information,” he said. 

The revelations come after questions were raised in Parliament recently on the code-names ‘Sonic Sonic’ and ‘Adu Hindh’ related to the Easter attacks. (NewsWire)