Before Sri Lanka's Easter Attacks, Muslims' Warnings About Terrorism Went Unheeded

December 12, 20199:10 AM ET

LAUREN FRAYER

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Fellow Muslims told him the men bore animosity toward Sri Lanka's Buddhist majority
and had become radicalized. Worst of all, they said, the brothers were rumored to
be stockpiling weapons. Taslim immediately alerted police. But authorities did not
arrest them.

A few weeks later, an ominous message started circulating on Facebook, calling

Taslim a "snitch." Then, on March 9 � a day Taslim's wife Fatima Jannath says
she'll remember forever � the family awoke with a start at 4:15 a.m.

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"I heard a loud pop, and I rolled over in bed, toward my husband. His eyes were
open wide, but he couldn't talk. There was blood on the pillow," Jannath, 28, told
NPR in an interview at her modest mud-brick home in Mawanella. "Then I saw two men
running out of the house, and I started screaming. My worst fears were confirmed."

Taslim had been shot point-blank through his right temple.

Jannath immediately suspected the Abdul-Haq brothers, and told police that very
morning. But when authorities went to the brothers' house later the same day, they
were gone.

Easter attacks

Six weeks later, on Easter Sunday, April 21, suicide bombers killed more than 250
people at Sri Lankan hotels and churches. In the weeks and months before, Sri
Lankan Muslims like Taslim did their best to warn authorities about radicalization
in their community. They weren't taken seriously

Security personnel stand guard at St. Anthony's Church on April 24 in Colombo, Sri
Lanka. The church was among three targeted in this year's Easter Sunday attacks.
Atul Loke/Getty Images
On Dec. 26 last year, in a town surrounded by tea and rubber plantations in central
Sri Lanka, residents discovered Buddhist statues had been vandalized on the side of
the road. In the middle of the night, some saw young men speeding away on
motorbikes after they'd shattered glass cases protecting the statues and hacked off
the stone and marble Buddhas' noses and hands.

The town, Mawanella, is home to significant numbers of Muslims and Buddhists.

Members of the town council worried the vandalism might signify a fraying of
relations among the town's religious communities � or perhaps just some mischief by
local youths.

So they asked Mohammad Taslim, a prominent Muslim council member, to investigate.

Taslim soon heard startling rumors about two brothers, Sadiq and Shaheed Abdul-Haq.