Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has ordered the police to interrogate five members of the family of Sharfaz Shuraih Muhsin alias Abu Shureih Seylani, a Sri Lankan who had allegedly joined the combat unit of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and was killed in an air raid in Syria on July 12.

Cabinet Spokesman Rajitha Senaratne told newspersons on Thursday, that the cabinet discussed the matter and decided to ask the police to conduct a thorough investigation to find out if Muhsin was alone in deciding to set off for Syria to join the Jehadi group or if he was part of a Jehadi network here in Sri Lanka. In this context the PM ordered the police to question five members of Muhsin’s family and any others who might be able to throw light on a possible Jehadi network in the island nation, Senaratne said.

The cabinet spokesman however added that while the government has the duty to inquire, there is no perceivable threat to Lanka from the ISIS or any Jehadi group.   

According to sources, the 37 year old Muhsin, a graduate in Sharia law from a university in Pakistan, a former Principal of an International School at Galewela in the Central Province, and a karate expert, had left home saying that he was going to Turkey to do relief work among war refugees. The immediate family did not suspect any interest in joining the combat units of the ISIS as he had a background of doing humanitarian work in Sri Lanka. He had done relief work after the December 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka.

(The Mew Indian Express)