In an attempt to ease Indian concerns, Sri Lankan officials said the Hambantota would not be used for military purposes. Collin Koh, a maritime security expert at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said China's stakes in the Sri Lankan ports could be seen as an interim solution to guarantee China's energy security at the Bay of Bengal near Sri Lanka. But it was also likely to serve as a stopover point for Chinese vessels, including military ones.
Doubts over Islamist group's potential role
Going back to the deadly East bombings. Jason Burke of the Guardian has expressed doubts over the Sri Lanka Thowheeth Jamath's (SLTJ) role in the Easter blasts. He writes:
"Analysts point out multiple suicide bombings of six or possibly more targets require a significant logistical operation and months of planning. Such attackers may detonate their devices alone, but need careful management by handlers to keep them committed in the days and weeks before. Large quantities of military-grade explosives would also have been necessary, as well as safe houses and bomb-making workshops.
"If this group is indeed responsible it would have had to have transformed from a ramshackle bunch of rabble-rousers known for inflammatory rhetoric and vandalism of Buddhist statues into a very capable and very violent outfit. This is possible, but must seem unlikely".
Jason Burke pointed out that Sri Lankan telecommunications minister, Harin Fernando, gave an unwitting example of how politicized the vision of decision-makers can be. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today program on Monday, Fernando said the government also had not ruled out an attempted coup.
"There are so many ways we could look at this, but right now our biggest priority would be to find what really led these eight or 10 or 12 men to carry out this attack," he said. "But we are not ruling out a coup as well."
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