India had warned Lanka of terror strikes. Interpol to send investigating team
Posted on April 22nd, 2019
Courtesy NewsIn.Asia
Colombo, April 22 (newsin.asia): India had warned Sri Lanka about imminent strikes suicide bombers twice this month – the first warning having been given on April 4 and the second on April 11, informed Sri Lankan sources said. Foreign agencies reported that Interpol will be sending a team to Sri Lanka to help Sri Lankan investigators to get to the bottom of the crime.
An Indian source said that the Indian High Commission had shared information they had with the Sri Lankan government. He declined to give details.
Harin Fernando, a cabinet minister,circulatedan internal security memo dated earlier this month that warned the group was getting ready for suicide attacks on popular Catholic churches and the Indian High Commission.
” It also said the group’s members were inciting hatred” among online followers.”
Unconfirmed reports identified the suicide bomber and mastermind behind the attack on the Shangri La hotel as Islamic extremist Moulvi Zahran Hashim. An imam, he was a prolific lecturer for National Tawheed Jamaath.
CNN reported that Hashim also wanted to attack the Indian High Commission in Colombo earlier this month, but the attack was thwarted. According to the CNN report, that attack was planned for April 4.
Security for the Indian High Commission has since been beefed up.
Why Intelligence Was Ignored
The standoff between President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had been one of the reasons for non-action on the intelligence input from India as well the local police.
Since the President was away on a pilgrimage in Thirupathi (India) on Sunday, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe wanted to convene a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC). According to the cabinet spokesman, Dr.Rajitha Senaratne, a meeting was fixed but the members of the NSC did not turn up for it.
The Prime Minister then went to the Defense Ministry to talk to the concerned officials. But he was made to wait there for 20 minutes. President Sirisena, who is opposed to Wickremesinghe, holds the Defense portfolio and NSC members go by his wishes.
Dr. Senaratne regretted that Wickremesinghe , who had been a member of the NSC since 1987, could not call a meeting of the NSC and that had to go looking for NSC members in the Defense ministry.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) has been defusing Improvised Explosive Devices through controlled explosions in several parts of Colombo city.
A parcel bomb left in a van parked near the Kochikade church which was attacked on Sunday, was defused on Monday. The controlled blast was misinterpreted as a terrorist attack by the media. A vehicle parked in the same area exploded when the STF tried to dispose of a bomb in it. There were no injuries.
87 pipe bombs were discovered near the Colombo airport on Sunday.
Given the number of explosives discovered it appears that the terror group involved had planned a major mayhem with casualties running into several hundreds.
Nine persons, who were arrested earlier for the bombing of Shangri-La hotel on Sunday, have been remanded till May 6.
Interpol To Join Investigations
Interpol is deploying a team of investigators, including experts in disaster victim identification, to Sri Lanka to help local authorities in the aftermath of deadly suicide bomb blasts that killed nearly 300 people, the international police organisation said Monday.
Sri Lanka said Monday it believed a local extremist group named National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) was behind the attacks and said it would look at whether the group had international support.
Interpol said it was deploying an Incident Response Team (IRT) at the request of the Sri Lanka authorities, including specialists with expertise in crime scene examination, explosives, counter-terror and victim identification.
If required, additional expertise in digital forensics, biometrics, as well as photo and video analysis will also be added to the team on the ground,” it added.
Interpol Secretary General Juergen Stock said the organisation will continue to provide whatever support is necessary.”
Information to help identify individuals linked to these attacks could come from anywhere in the world, which is where Interpol’s global network and databases can prove vital, especially for officers on the ground,” he said.
The death toll from Sunday’s attacks rose dramatically Monday to 290 — including dozens of foreigners — in the country’s worst attacks for over a decade.
More than 500 people were injured in the assault that saw suicide bombers hit three high-end hotels popular with foreign tourists, and three churches, unleashing carnage in Colombo and beyond.
April 22nd, 2019 at 11:56 pm
Defence secy Hemasiri Fernando, who hides his face under dark glasses, says he did not expect bomb blast of this magnitude. This to my mind is a stupid statement. That means they expected a bomb blast. So, they should have asked the police to at least locate these people and question them. Bomb blasts are serious matters. If they cannot act on it why we pay him and keep him there. He should be sacked immediately. They did not do that but packed prez off to Thirupathy and the sacrifices made were the offerings to that god.
PM says he was not informed and invited to the sec meetings. Can any sane security chief rely on him not to betray them knowing what happened at Athurugiriya?.
I believe this is the work of our neighbor. They used JVP and LTTE destabilize and even destroy our country for 30 long years. Now they know tamils wont budge to their calls. So, they use another set of foolish people and selfish politicos to destroy our tourism and other economic sectors. According to media report prez has told them to expect some big thing on 15th and sure enough that happened.
April 23rd, 2019 at 12:48 am
This whole thing is pathetic. The biggest enemy of this country is the UNP and during their time all the bad things happened except for 1971 JVP crap.
Remember that cunning JR told that every citizen must look after their own security?
Why we need a government then? Why they enjoy facilities and perks and what not… 310 innocent people dead which is more than the Tsunami damage.
Nothing will happen with the extremist Muslim ministers and their stooges.
My3.. Where is Thirupathy god? He could not save Sri lanka…
May be he will look after you..
April 23rd, 2019 at 3:24 am
Hiranthe, you are absolutely correct. Biggest enemy of Sri Lanka, Sinhalese race and Buddhism is traitor anti
Sinhalese, anti Buddhist, anti Sri Lanka UNPatriotic_rats. Since traitor alugosuwa (to Sinhalese Buddhist only, just
like its traitor low life kalakanniya Batalande wa(n)dakaya) thambi mudiyanselage jr@ Sri Lanka, Sinhalese race and Buddhism being systematically destroyed to the delight of traitor tamils, mussies, india and and the west.
To make Sri Lanka, Sinhalese race and Buddhism safe:
*wipe out these traitor, lying, thieving, murderous (Sinhalese Buddhists only since mudering/hurting tamils/
mussies is a war crime) thugs from the political map for good
* ban race based parties like Tamil Nadu Alliance aka TNA and Sri Lanka Multiplying Community aka SLMC
*ban mussie/tamils only schools which traitor foreigners use to hide real numbers and fill up to the rafters
with fast breeding
* Stop FREE education/FREE hospitals after 2 children to curb mussie multiplication like xxxx
*impose a tax on more than 2 children to stop mussie baby machine production lines
* ban burka
*ban shariya law
*ban madrasas (poisoning schools)
*ban the barbaric religion which breeds too fast and start killing natives to wrestle control wherever this
menace goes
It makes complete sense to ban this religion of madness which doesn’t make any sense in this 21st century for
non believers’ countries to live in peace! Ask them go to where they came from to practise the madness with
their high fashion in hell burkas, goni billa dresses, madrasas (poison schools), barbaric shariya law etc. etc. This
is 21st century for xxxx’s sake, not year 500 you barbarians.
We all are living a place the size of a grain of sand in the vast vast vast vast universe. Imagine 7 billion people
live there and it takes more than 24 hours to go from one end to the other. To think someone created the grain
of sand is utter lunacy in the 21st century. Distances are measured in light years in the universe. Some morons think these light years are not heavy years. It’s the distance light travels in a year. Then moon worshiping? You can’t be in the 21st century, if you have a brain!
Ban the fastest breeding religion aka religion of violence for the world to be a peaceful place!