Dazzling in his expensive western attire and driving a brand new Toyota Land Cruiser was the identity of Sri Lankan millionaire-turned-suicide bomber Inshaf Ahmed Ibrahim. He was well-respected in his community and was known to be the smartest in his family.
While Inshaf had moderate religious views his brother Ilham was open about his links with National Towheeth Jama'ath (NTJ) and had strict views on Sharia laws and other extremist ideologies.
It is still unknown as to why the brothers from such well-educated wealthy families did such a horrible thing by terrorising the island nation. On Sunday, both the brothers bombed two five-star hotels in Colombo while the guests were enjoying their breakfast buffet.
Mother of Satan
It was in a copper manufacturing facility, Colossus Copper owned by Inshaf in Wellampitiya suburb of Sri Lanka where the suicide bombs and vests were made by using triacetone triperoxide (TATP).
TATP is the same chemical explosive that has been used by terrorist organisations and extremists in creating bombs, suicide bombs and improvised explosives. It can be easily prepared from retail ingredients such as hair bleach and nail polish remover due to which it is preferred by the terrorists.
Commonly referred as the "mother of Satan" by terrorist group al-Qaeda, TATP is one of the few explosives that does not contain nitrogen, so it can easily evade bomb detectors that are designed to scan nitrogenous explosives.
TATP used in Terror attacks
- Shoe bomb attempt in Paris, 2001
- London bombings, 2005
- Paris attacks, 2015
- Brussels bombings, 2016
- Parsons Green bombing in London, 2017
- Surabaya bombings in Indonesia, 2018
- Sri Lanka Easter Sunday bombings, 2019
