Sri Lankan terror outfit National Thowheed Jamath (NJT) chief and one of the suicide bombers Zaharan Hashim was a follower of Sufi Islam up to 2011 but switched to Sunni-Wahabi sect and remained with it from 2011 to 2014. But not satisfied with the Wahabi ideology, he joined radical group Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamaat and then headed the splinter group of the outfit under the banner of NTJ.
The NTJ, along with the Jamathei Milathu Ibrahim, (JMI) carried out a series of suicide bombings in churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday killing over 253 persons and injuring about 500 others.
Preliminary assessments suggest he got radicalised at multiple levels and is suspected to have blown himself as he was hardly heard in the outfits with which he owed allegiance. The chief of a terror group himself turning a suicide bomber is a first of its kind example and is clearly indicative of the fact that Hashim was an attention seeker and wanted to prove his belief that only establishment of a caliphate is the solution to problems being faced by his community.
During his stint with the Sufi Islam sect, Hashim is learnt to have realised that he could not grow in the organizational ranks as Sufism has a strict hierarchical tree. This led Hashim to follow Sunni-Wahabi sects but there he realised that instead of Islam first, the sect recognised mission first with regard to the belief system of the Wahabis.
In the company of the Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamat, Hashim realised that the outfit was hardcore in the Islamic beliefs but did not seek an Islamic governance mechanism in Sri Lanka. This propelled him to break away from the main organisation and form the NTJ with an agenda to form a caliphate in the island nation.
Counter-terrorism expert Dr Rituraj Mate said, “Disenchanted with the various Islamic sects for not recognising him as an important leader, NTJ chief Hashim decided to break away from Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamat. During his stints with the various religious groups, he got re-radicalised eventually leading him to become a suicide bomber. This is a classic case of transnational radicalization wherein Hashim was following radical videos of Zakir Naik, wanted in a terror case in India. Hashim’s radical videos were being followed for Islamic State radicals in Tamil Nadu and others States.”