The Sri Lanka suicide bombers had planned an attack on a fourth luxury hotel, but for some reason it never occurred, officials said Tuesday.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe revealed the plot on the unnamed luxury hotel without saying why it failed, according to the New York Times.
This man had also checked into the hotel the previous day,” an official source told Agence France-Presse of the terrorist.
The source claimed that hotel staff became suspicious after news broke of the other hotel attacks and the would-be bomber fled the hotel. He was soon tracked to a small inn on the outskirts of the capital Colombo.
He blew himself up when confronted by police, with two bystanders also killed, according to AFP.
That blast at the Tropical Inn opposite Dehiwala Zoo was the seventh on Easter Sunday, following near-simultaneous attacks on three churches and three luxury hotels. An eighth explosion later killed three police officers as they raided a safe house used by members of the cell.
(CNN)The first time I traveled to Sri Lanka, in 2010, a ghastly civil war had just ended. Military officers still manned checkpoints along major roads.
Frida GhitisWhether we were passengers in a rickety tuk-tuk in Colombo, the bustling, leafy capital, or riding in an air-conditioned car across the countryside, armed men in olive-green uniforms would routinely order us to stop. They would check for explosives or for any sign that the violence that had plagued the country over nearly three decades might again threaten the peace won at such an appalling cost.Those scenes seemed relegated to the past — until this week when terrorists killed hundreds of people, attacking churches and major hotels on Easter Sunday. At last count, more than 320 people are confirmed dead and hundreds more injured.A decade ago, it made sense to me that travel brochures routinely referred to the country as a “teardrop shaped island.” Tears and Sri Lanka seemed to belong in the same sentence. I thought that had changed.Up to 100,000 people died in a horrific civil war that ended in 2009. All wars are awful, but there was something particularly macabre about Sri Lanka’s — with its wave of suicide bombings by the fanatical Tamil Tigers; with its gruesome final battle — a civilian massacre by the government; with the still-visible scars in Jaffna, the capital of the Northern Province, and the rest of the battered war zones, where the radical members of the Tamil minority launched their brutal bid for independence, drawing a crushing response from the state.
I lived through Sri Lankan terrorism. Here’s my adviceI returned over the years, witnessing a country emerge from tragedy. On my most recent trip, 16 months ago, I stayed at Colombo’s lively Cinnamon Grand Hotel, one of the targets of the Easter Sunday attacks. I had breakfast every day — fish curry and chilled coconut juice — in the same restaurant where a suicide bomber detonated his explosives. I watched the lavish weddings in the cavernous rear lobby, soaking up performances from traditional Sinhalese musicians and trying to understand the symbolism of the rituals.I rejoiced as a witness to Sri Lankans enjoying the fruits of peace: a normal life.For the rest of the world, peace meant that the wonders of the small island in the crosscurrents of history were open and inviting. Tourists started arriving by the millions. But all was not well on the island known before independence as Ceylon, and before that as Serendib, the inspiration for the word “serendipity.”After the war, Sri Lanka moved haltingly along the path of transitional justice, drawing international support but also criticism. Separately, domestic political battles reached dangerous levels. Last year, a constitutional clash between rival politicians left the country with competing prime ministers amid warnings that the country risked plunging back into a bloodbath. The police canceled vacations just in case.The country’s giant neighbors, China and India, have vied for influence. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, close to China and accused of massive corruption, signed a gargantuan deal with Beijing for construction of a new port. Rajapaksa has denied the accusations. The cost was so high that Beijing ended up taking possession of the strategic facility, infuriating Sri Lankans.
Mystery surrounds the source of the Sri Lanka attacksChina’s presence is inescapable. I once visited what would become another target of Sunday’s terrorists, the Shangri-La Hotel, a massive, luxurious structure facing the seashore, where Chinese workers are building yet another mammoth controversial project, this one building up in the sea. (China generally sends its own laborers to work on its foreign infrastructure projects.)The economy has been performing well since peace returned. Gross domestic product, the poverty rate and life expectancy have all been moving in the right direction. And yet not long ago I noted that “the march toward a stable, peaceful and prosperous future is threatened” by the government’s hesitancy in dealing with the past and its reluctance to tackle emerging tensions.Those new tensions include friction between Buddhists and Muslims, which burst to the surfaceduring one of my visits.According to the 2012 census, some 75% of Sri Lankans are ethnic Sinhalese, most of them Buddhists. Ethnic Tamils, the largest minority, make up little more than 11%. Most of the them practice Hinduism. Muslims make up just under 10% of the population, and Christians, most of them Catholic, are 7.6 % of the population.Clearly, it’s a complicated country, shaped by the sweep of empires and merchants who brought their religions with them. For the most part, the different groups have and continue to live in peace, but the exceptions have proven catastrophic enough to warrant alarm.Authorities are blaming an Islamist group, National Tawheed Jamath, for the carnage, saying it probably had help from abroad. Multiple warnings of an impending attack suggest that line of thinking is reasonable, and now ISIS has claimed responsibility.
Concerns terror cell in Sri Lanka large and well-connected 05:11One of the greatest risks now is that in its fully justified effort to uproot the organization that carried out Sunday’s attacks, the authorities may further spread the seeds of extremism, giving terrorists precisely what they want. Fanatics intent on sparking unrest, on boosting recruitment and weakening the state like nothing more than to see the state make life worse for their potential supporters.Decisive action is required, but let’s hope cool thinking prevails. Sri Lanka’s peace is fragile.Authorities were wise to block much of social media after the attacks. Fueled by rumors in Facebook posts, mobs of nationalist Buddhist extremists (you read that correctly) have clashed against Muslim groups. The government, dominated by Sinhalese Buddhists, has been slow to act. After one such attack, in 2017, the Sri Lankan human rights lawyer Gehan Gunatilleke told me that the government’s inadequate response is “legitimizing ultra-conservative” Muslim groups, noting that some of the Muslim groups are trying to outdo each on their radicalism to please their Middle Eastern backers.Follow CNN Opinion
Join us on Twitter and FacebookIt’s the perfect brew for extremism to thrive.Over the years I’ve met heroic Sri Lankans who fought to bring peace to their country. I’ve met Sinhalese and Tamils working for reconciliation. And I’ve heard worried Sri Lankans concerned about politicians squandering the country’s future. The checkpoints have been lifted. Peace has made inroads, but the shadow of the long war has not completely faded. Sri Lankans, heartbroken after the bombings, understand better than anyone how much is at stake.This commentary has been updated from an earlier version to add that China often sends its own laborers to work on Chinese infrastructure projects in other countries.
Parliamentarian Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe stated that the government including United National Party (UNP) MP Mujibur Rahman should bear the responsibility for the series of explosions which occurred around the country on Easter Sunday (21).
MP Rajapakshe mentioned this at the special parliamentary meeting held today (23).
According to him, on November 18th, 2016, he stated that 32 persons from 4 families in the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) organization had received ISIS training and is preparing for a terror attack in the country.
But government Ministers held a press conference and called me a liar. Mujibur Rahman cursed me. Those ministers and Mujibur Rahman should take the responsibility of these attacks”, said Rajapakshe.
The parliament convened at this afternoon (23) to discuss the security situation of the country following the Easter Day attacks which left 321 dead including 38 foreigners. Over 500 persons have been injured in the attacks.
An image released by the Amaq news agency shows alleged mastermind Zahran Hashim with seven men claimed to have carried out the bombings
ISIS has released a picture which it claims shows seven suicide bombers alongside the mastermind who co-ordinated the Easter Sunday atrocity in Sri Lanka.
The image was released by the Amaq news agency – Daesh’s official mouthpiece – and is said to show extremist cleric Zahran Hashim, who has been identified as the man who planned the attacks.
It later released a video which is claimed to show the killers pledging their allegiance to the terror group.
Seven fantatics have their faces covered, but the terror group earlier named the bombers as Abu Ubayda, Abu al-Mukhtar, Abu Khalil, Abu al-Bara’a, Abu Muhammad and Abu Abdullah.
The men in the picture are all seen standing in front of an ISIS flag.
The blasts killed 321 people, including eight Britons.
In an earlier statement, the extremist organisation said: “The perpetrators of the attack that targeted nationals of the countries of the coalitions and Christians in Sri Lanka before yesterday are fighters from the Islamic State.”
The terror group claims “the executors of the attack that targeted citizens of coalition states & Christians in Sri Lanka two days ago were with ISIS”.
There were six explosions on the morning of Easter Sunday, three at churches and three at luxury hotels.
A planned fourth bombing, near the airport, failed.
The death cult has repeatedly called for assaults on churches, particularly since the New Zealand mosque attacks.
It did not provide any evidence to support its claim, which is being investigated by Sri Lankan authorities.
Citing the US-led military campaign against ISIS in the Middle East, the claim stated: “The attackers who targeted citizens of the coalition state members and Christians in Sri Lanka the day before yesterday were fighters of the Islamic State.”
Some of the bombers had travelled abroad and returned home to Sri Lanka, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told reporters, adding that he believes there may be “some links” between the attacks and ISIS.
He said it was “possible” that the bombings were revenge for the New Zealand terror shootings, and that Sri Lankans who returned after joining ISIS in Syria are being monitored.
Both ISIS and al-Qaeda had called on revenge attacks after the Christchurch mosque attacks.
Sri Lanka’s prime minister says more attacks are possible, as the government blames two domestic Islamist extremist groups suspected of receiving help from foreign militants.
The early findings of the investigation have found that the attacks were committed in revenge for the mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, a month ago, a junior minister told parliament.
The FBI is assisting Sri Lankan authorities with their investigation of the bomb attacks over the Easter weekend on three churches and four hotels, a spokeswoman for the US law enforcement agency said on Tuesday.
The Washington Post earlier had reported that the FBI had offered expertise to test evidence and that analysts were scouring databases for information regarding the attacks.
Sri Lanka’s prime minister warned there were more explosives and militants “out there” after the Easter suicide bombings.
Ranil Wickremesinghe made the comment at a news conference, and said some officials are likely to lose their jobs over intelligence lapses surrounding the attack.
Mr Wickremesinghe acknowledged there was a prior warning, and said India’s embassy was eyed as a possible target.
He told reporters that the government’s security agencies were monitoring Sri Lankans who had joined Islamic State and returned home.
“We will be following up on IS claims, we believe there may be links,” he said.
Indian intelligence officers contacted their Sri Lankan counterparts two hours before the first attack to warn of a specific threat on churches, one Sri Lankan defence source and an Indian government source told Reuters.
Another Sri Lankan defence source said a warning came “hours before” the first strike
One of the Sri Lankan sources said a warning was also sent by the Indians on Saturday night.
The Indian government source said similar messages had been given to Sri Lankan intelligence agents on April 4 and April 20.
Sri Lanka’s presidency and the Indian foreign ministry both did not respond to requests for comment.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says that investigators have made good progress in identifying the suspects involved in the Easter Day attacks.
Speaking in a media briefing for the foreign correspondents today (23), the Prime minister also said it is possible” the Easter bombings were retaliation for the Christchurch attacks, but did not provide any evidence.
He says that there were foreign links behind the attack and that it could not have been done just locally. There has been training given and coordination which we have not seen earlier”, he said. He added that some of the bombers had traveled abroad and then returned home.
The government’s security agencies were monitoring Sri Lankans who had joined IS and returned home, he added.
He stated that many of the suicide bombers have been identified already.
Sri Lanka has had offers of help from several countries and that several countries have sent down teams to assist in the investigations; however, the police will decide with whom and how they are going to work, stated the Prime Minister.
Stating that they are trying to identify all the nationals affected by the bombings, Wickremesinghe said that some countries will also have to undertake their own investigation because their nationals have been affected by the blast.
We, if it was known, certainly could have prevented many of the attacks in the churches and have more security in the hotels,” Wickremesinghe said.
The Prime Minister refused to disclose the number of suspects arrested over the attacks; however, when asked if a Syrian national has been taken into custody, he stated that only Sri Lankans have been arrested so far.
Wickremesinghe stated that terrorists do not belong to any faith and that Sri Lanka will continue their policy of ensuring unity and religious harmony within the country while tracking down global terrorism.
When asked about the continued threat, he said:
There are a few people on the run, somehow on the run, so we’ve got to detain them. We have an unknown number of suspects on the run.”
Speaking on the relationship between the President and the Prime Minister having affected public security, Wickremesinghe stated that they have put behind their differences of opinion to face this issue. He said that the top priority of them was to apprehend the offenders.
When questioned on the social media ban Premier stated that it will be discussed tomorrow and that this was done to ensure communal harmony in the first days of the attack. He said, We went through these exercises earlier in Digana. We didn’t want to take another chance.”
Wickremesinghe said that the security apparatus is of the view that there are foreign links behind this attack and that they had suspicions of an ISIS involvement as well.
Prime Minister refused to name the local group which had carried out these attacks. But he stated that they are concerned by it despite it being a smaller group in size.
A vast majority of Muslims condemn this. They are as angry as the Sinhalese and the Tamils as to what has happened”, the Prime Minister added.
(CNN) Early warnings from India’s intelligence services to Sri Lankan officials ahead of the Easter Sunday bombings were based on information gleaned from an ISIS suspect, CNN has learned.
Delhi passed on unusually specific intelligence in the weeks and days leading up to the attacks, Sri Lankan officials have said, and at least some of it was gleaned from material obtained during interrogations of an ISIS suspect arrested in India, an Indian official told CNN.
The revelation comes as ISIS claimed responsibility for the bombings, which killed 321 people and injured more than 500. In a statement published by the ISIS-affiliated news agency Amaq, the group said the attackers were fighters of the Islamic State.”
The involvement of a foreign organization would explain how a previously marginal domestic extremist group blamed for the attacks, National Tawheed Jamath (NTJ), could have pulled off one of the worst terrorist atrocities since 9/11.
The number of casualties could have been even higher. Authorities said Tuesday that a fourth hotel was among the original targets, but the attack at that location failed. Officials previously said they found an unexploded pipe bomb near Colombo’s international airport.
As investigators scrambled to track down the bombers’ associates, there was growing anger in Sri Lanka at the failure to heed the warnings of India’s intelligence service.
Dehli’s information came from the interrogation of an ISIS suspect, the Indian source told CNN. After being interrogated, the suspect gave investigators the name of a man he trained in Sri Lanka, who is associated with the local extremist group, the NTJ, the source said.
While we were investigating ISIS cases, during the interrogation of an accused, he disclosed the name of a man, Zahran Hashim, who is one of the suicide bombers and is associated with NTJ,” said the intelligence source in India. The suspect said that he played a role in his (Hashim’s) radicalization.”
The Indian intelligence source did not specify when the arrest was made. Indian intelligence agencies shared their information with their counterparts in Sri Lanka,” the source said.
Hashim’s name appears on a memo dated April 11 and signed by Sri Lanka’s Deputy Inspector General of Police. The memo, a copy of which has been seen by CNN, named Hashim as the leader of the NTJ.
A certain foreign intelligence service has reported that the leader of the National Tawheed Jamath — NTJ, Mohamed Cassim Mohamed Zahran, also known as Zahran Hashim and his followers — have been planning for suicide attacks within Sri Lanka,” the memo reads. It was circulated widely to a range of security services and some government ministries.
On Tuesday, a video released by ISIS showed eight men purported to be the Sri Lankan attackers pledging allegiance to the terror group. All of the men have their hands placed together and are masked, except one. That man, identified as Zahran Hashim, is leading them,” according to the caption provided by the Amaq news agency.
President Maithripala Sirisena says that he hopes to affect changes among the heads of the country’s security forces within the next 24 hours.
He stated this during his address to the nation, in the wake of Sunday’s devastating bombings targeting multiple churches and hotels in Sri Lanka.
President Sirisena pointed out that various discussions, dialogues, debates, and criticisms on these attacks are currently ongoing in the country and that he considers this a fundamental characteristic of a free and democratic society.
President stated that it is his responsibility to clarify the true situation of this national tragedy and that it is also his duty and responsibility to reveal everything without hiding anything.
According to him, the security forces were reported of this terrorist campaign since 2017. They had also observed that these persons received training and guidance by joining international terrorist organizations.
Our security forces constantly followed them and monitored them. However, the security forces did not possess enough evidence and clear information to take legal action against them. The activities of these persons were closely monitored at National Security Council meetings in the past years”, stated the President.
He also stated that these persons carried out these attacks under the guidance, support, and leadership of an international terrorist organization.
President Sirisena appreciated the discipline and patience displayed by the Christian community during this painful and tragic event. He saluted all Catholic and Christian community of Sri Lanka, led by Archbishop Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, for their calm and peaceful behavior during this turbulent time.
We now have to enter into a process of establishing a free and peaceful tomorrow in the country,” said the President.
President Sirisena stated that he expects to completely restructure the security forces within the upcoming week. He says that he hopes to affect changes among the heads of the country’s security forces within the next 24 hours.
During the 1980s, the Sinhala and Muslim communities in the country perceived every Tamil person as a terrorist. Later on, the public became aware that every Tamil person is not an LTTE terrorist. This helped to establish harmony and reconciliation among the communities without suspicion, fear or distrust.
Therefore, I request all Sinhala and Tamil communities not to perceive the Muslim community in Sri Lanka with suspicion, fear or distrust. We should remember that not every Muslim person is a terrorist. Only a very few persons have joined these terrorist groups,” said the President.
It is important to establish harmony and reconciliation between the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities in the country. We need to with trust in everybody”, said President Sirisena.
The state of emergency was implemented with the aim of curbing the terrorist activities and the police and the tri-forces have been granted power to act on this by gazetting regulations on preventing terrorism, stated the President.
According to him, had this not been gazetted, the police would have lacked the necessary power they need to act on these events and the tri-forces could not have come into action.
I personally take the responsibility that these regulations will not be used to hinder or challenge a democratic and free way of living,” added the President.
President stated that more information has been uncovered about the suspects, criminals and respondents in connection with the attacks.
He added that considering this situation, the capacity to act on preventing the occurrence of such calamities is certainly there.
One of our friendly country and seven to eight other powerful countries had assured to provide maximum support to the government of Sri Lanka to eradicate terrorist movements,” President Sirisena said.
The public raises questions as to why the security divisions in the country failed to act on the information given by the state intelligence service of a diplomatic country regarding the attacks.
The President commented that the responsible high-profile authorities of security divisions have not informed him on the attacks. He says he could have taken the necessary actions to prevent the attacks had he been informed on the attacks.
Stern actions will be taken on the security officials for not taking the necessary actions ahead of the attacks.
The tri-forces and the police, as well as their intelligence services, will undergo complete reconstruction.
Colombo, April 23: The Islamic State and the Jamaat al-Tawhid al-Watania group have both claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks carried out in Sri Lanka on Sunday.
Reuters quoted the Islamic State’s AMAQ news agency to say that the organization has claimed responsibility for the multiple suicide bombings which took the lives of more than 300 people including 38 foreign nationals.
Earlier, Rita Katz, Director of the respected terror monitoring SITE Intelligence Group, said that Islamic State (IS) supporters have been applauding the attacks on social media, and celebrating the casualties”.
Katz said that the IS media channels are ‘posting rampantly’ about the blasts and praying ‘may Allah accept’ the suicide bombers.
She claimed that the online praise indicated that the group may be preparing to take responsibility for the attacks.
The Russian news agency TASS quoted the Al-Arabiya TV channel to say that Jamaat al-Tawhid al-Watania, a little known group, has claimed responsibility. The channel had given no details about the organization.
Sri Lanka police spokesman, Ruwan Gunasekera, said that 40 persons have been detained for questioning, 26 of them are with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and three are under the custody of the Terrorism Investigation Department (TID).
Homegrown Group
However, in Sri Lanka itself, the government and even the leaders of the Muslims, are saying that the suspects are a new Sri Lankan outfit called ‘National Tawheed Jamaat” headed by Moulavi Mohammad Zahran of Kathankudy, Sri Lanka’s only 100% Muslim town which is located in the Eastern province
According to Hilmy Ahamad a leader of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka (MCSL), the National Tawheed Jamaat headed by Moulavi Zahran had broken away from the older Sri Lanka Tawheed Jamaat after the December 26, 2018 incidents in Mawanella in Kandy district in which Muslim radicals had desecrated scores of Buddha’s Statues.
Ahamad said that Zahran fled to various towns in Sri Lanka and at one stage crossed over to India. Some said he was living in Chennai and others said he was in Bengaluru. He has been absconding since then.
Moulavi Zahran was a teacher in a Kathankudy Madrassah. He was a powerful speaker and therefore sought after. Said Hilmy Ahamad: Parents were happy that their children were learning the Quran. But they did not know that Zahran was teaching radicalism.”
Zahran disconnected himself from the Sri Lanka Tawheed Jamaat and also all other Jamaats, including the Tamil Nadu Tawheed Jammat, and became a lone wolf in hiding. His name suddenly emerged after the Easter Sunday blasts in Colombo. The Lankan government had publicly named him as the mastermind of the carnage. One report said that he was the suicide bomber who blew himself up in Shangri-La hotel in Colombo.
In order to distance themselves from Zahran and the National Tawheed Jamaat, the Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu Tawheed Jamaats issued statements saying that they had nothing to do with Zahran and his organization.
Intelligence Was There
According to Lankan government minister Harin Fernando, Indian intelligence service had got wind of Zahran’s plans to stage suicide attacks on posh hotels, churches and other targets, including the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka.
This was shared with the Lankan authorities on April 4 and 11. A Deputy Inspector General of Police had sent up a memo to the top brass in the Lankan Establishment about the intelligence input and sought follow up measures.
The Muslim Council Sri Lanka headed by N.M.Ameen and Hilmy Ahamad had also warned about the hate speech and radicalism of Zaharan after the desecration of Buddha statues in Mawanella in December 2018. Ahamad had informed the authorities about radical elements in his community three years earlier, supported by documents.
We had warned about Zahran as part of our complaint about hate speech by Buddhist and Islamic leaders and produced evidence including videos of Zahran’s speech. But no action was taken perhaps because there was insufficient evidence,” Hilmy Ahamad said.
Huge Cache of Arms Found
Dr. Ranga Jayasuriya, a security expert in a Colombo-based think tank, writing in Daily Mirror on April 23, recalled that after the desecration of Buddha’s statues in Mawanella on December 26, 2018, interrogation of seven suspects had led to an 80 acre-coconut farm in Wanathawillu in Puttalam district not far from Colombo,where a large cache of explosives was found.
The cache included 100kg of C4 explosives, 75 kg ammonium nitrate and potassium chloride and 6 cans of 20 liter nitrate acid, which investigators believed were meant to make explosive devices. Four individuals were arrested. However, the key suspects, who were not in the plantation at the time, have remained at large.”
An un-named Muslim leader had offered to arrange the surrender of an extremist preacher who was in hiding in return for an assurance, Dr.Jayasuriya wrote.
It now transpires that the extremist preacher was Moulavi Zaharan.
Minister Kabir Hashim has now told a media conference that one or two persons who were arrested at Wanathawillu were released due to political pressure. One of the released suspects is now being identified as an Easter Sunday suicide bomber, Dr.Jayasuriya notes. says.
The Daily Mirror article reveals that in mid-March 2019, Mohamed Razak Taslim (37), the Coordinating secretary of Highways and Investment Promotions Minister Kabir Hashim was shot at a point blank range at his residence in Dhanagama Mawatha, Kandy, by two assailants. Taslim had helped the CID investigations to nab the Mawanella attackers.
As in the previous cases, in this case too, there was no follow up action.
Analyzing the reasons for inaction, Dr.Jayasuriya says that for many in political circles and among Muslim community leaders, the prospect of an armed and violent Islamic extremism has been a bitter pill to swallow. Their immediate concerns have led to the threats being downplayed or ignored. But this has been at the expense of lives of many hundreds of Sri Lankans, he points out.
However, the involvement of Moulvi Zahran’s brother Rilwan came to light. Mohammed Milhan has been found to be active on social media, instigating followers against other faiths.
First Muslim Suicide Bombers in Lanka
The Easter Sunday blasts are noteworthy for another point of view. In Sri Lanka, suicide bombings are known to be an exclusive preserve of the Tamil Tigers. But the Easter Sunday bombings show that even Lankan Islamic extremists are capable of indulging in this deadly act.
The Government Analyst has reportedly confirmed that seven suicide bombers had taken part in the attacks on Easter Sunday. Two were deployed in Shangri-La hotel and one each in other locations. And all the suicide bombers are reportedly Sri Lankans.
Foreign Involvement
As Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said, serial blasts on this wide and destructive scale could not have been arranged by a newly founded small group and that a foreign involvement and expertise are a distinct possibility.
The government is saying that investigations would be conducted into this aspect. But a renowned Sri Lankan security expert, Dr.Rohan Gunaratna, Professor of Security Studies at the Rajaratnam Center for International Studies at Nanyang University in Singapore, has said that the attacks have the signature of the Islamic State (IS). The IS had conducted it with the help of its Sri Lankan branch”. The National Tawheed Jamaat could well be a branch of the Islamic State.
According to Dr.Gunaratna the choice of targets is a give-away. The targets were top-end hotels frequented by White foreigners and Christian churches . These indicate that the attackers had animosity towards the West and its religion Christianity.
Remember, it was a West-led coalition which ousted the IS from Iraq and Syria, and Christianity is seen as the West’s ideological under pinning,” Dr.Gunaratna said.
However, while not ruling out IS’ involvement, locals add other theories such as a Buddhist cum nationalist plot to overthrow the present pro-West regime of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe by showing it as being too weak and ineffective to protect the country. The other theory is that Mossad or the agency of another anti-Muslim country could have carried out the strikes to stir up Buddhist antagonism towards Muslims.
Lankan Muslims Abhor Terror
Members of other communities in Sri Lanka complain that the enlightened sections of the Muslim community are not doing anything to stem encroaching fundamentalism and radicalism in their community, and are in a perpetual mode of denial, But Muslim leaders say that they are doing their bit and deny that the Muslims at large are supporters of violence.
Radical groups like the National Tawheed Jamaat are very very distant from the vast majority of Muslims in Sri Lanka,” says Hilmy Ahamad.
N.M.Ameen, President of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, said in a statement that the Easter Sunday attacks were meant to create divides between religious and ethnic groups.
This is a deliberate attempt to create panic and disrupt life,” Ameen said while appealing to Muslims to provide any assistance that the government might require in conducting the on-going probe to find the perpetrators of the heinous crime” and bring them to justice.
Sri Lanka police spokesman, Ruwan Gunasekera, said that 40 persons have been detained for questioning, 26 of them are with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and three are under the custody of the Terrorism Investigation Department (TID
Colombo, April 23 (Reuters): A whole Sri Lankan Muslim family, comprising two brothers and the wife of one of them, was involved in the serial suicide bombings which ripped through Colombo on Sunday, police said.
The brothers, whose names have not been revealed, carried out two of the three hotel suicide blasts.
The featured image at the top shows a suicide bomber walking to the Church in Negombo along with other worshipers
An attack on a fourth hotel failed. But this helped lead the police to the Islamist group National Tawheed Jamaat which is now blamed for the assault, police said.
The brothers were in their late twenties and operated their own family cell”, an investigating officer said.
They were key members of the Islamist National Towheed Jama’ath (NTJ) group which the government has blamed for the attacks.
One of the brothers checked into the Cinnamon Grand hotel and the other at the Shangri-La on Saturday. The next morning, at virtually the same time, they went to the hotels’ Easter Sunday breakfast buffets and blew up explosives-laden backpacks, the officer said.
One of the brothers had given false identity details when he checked into the hotel. The other had given the a address which led police commandos to their family home in a commercial area of Colombo.
When the Special Task Force went there to investigate, one brother’s wife set off explosives killing herself and her two children,” the officer said.
It was a single terror cell operated by one family,” the investigator said.
They had the cash and the motivation. They influenced their extended family too.”
Three police commandos were killed in the blast, Several extended family members are among the 40 in detention.
The brothers had been involved in their father’s lucrative spice export business, and yet they decided to blow themselves up for their version of Islam, investigators said.
A focus of the inquiry will be to find out whether there was a foreign influence in their radicalisation and how the children of such a wealthy family had become involved, an official source said.
What we have gathered so far is that they had indicated to their close family what they were going to do. And it looks like they were inspired by foreign terrorist groups, but to what extent they had direct links is still unclear.”
What we have seen from the CCTV footage is that all the suicide bombers were carrying very heavy backpacks. These appear to be crude devices made locally,” the source said.
Another would-be suicide bomber walked into a fourth luxury hotel in Colombo on Sunday. But he did not set off a blast. It was not known if his explosives failed or he had a change of heart.
But after the Shangri-La blast, staff at the unnamed hotel became suspicious and the man was tracked to a lodge near the capital. He blew himself up there when confronted by police, the source said. Two bystanders were also killed.
Mawanella Muslims Complained
The whereabouts of the NTJ leader, Moulvi Mohammad Zahran Hashmi, is also unknown.
He was linked to the vandalizing of Buddha statues on December 26 ,2018 at the central Lankan town of Mawanella.
The local Muslim community had been complaining to authorities about Hashmi since 2017.
Residents of the village in the east of the country where he lived had demanded police action against him over his radical comments and acts, community leaders told AFP.
He was a threat to moderate Muslims in the east and we had made several complaints,” one Muslim leader told AFP.
The police chief’s warnings about the NTJ were not passed to top ministers. A separate investigation is underway into why more was not done to stop the brothers and the other attackers.
The officials said Indian security agencies had alerted Sri Lanka that another National Thowheeth Jamaath (NTJ) team led by Jal al-Quital alias Rilwan Marzag could carry out more attacks, Hindustan Times reported today.
Noufar Moulvi, brother-in-law of Hashim, recently returned to Sri Lanka from Qatar and had taken charge of the group, they added.
The NTJ, the little known group blamed for the bombing of churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Sunday, appears to have been inspired by Islamic State (IS) though direct links between the two are yet to be established, people familiar with developments said on Monday.
An intelligence officer, who requested anonymity, said the attacks couldn’t have been possible without months of planning and international players travelling to Sri Lanka to take part in the execution at different stages.
The NTJ was formed in Kattankudy, a Muslim-dominated town in eastern Sri Lanka, in 2014. Its founder Zahran Hashim alias Abu Ubaida is believed to have been the suicide bomber who targeted Shangri-La Hotel with military grade explosives.
A video released by Al Ghuraba Media featured the seven suicide bombers allegedly involved in the attacks.
Except for Abu Ubaida, the others had their faces covered and the video had messages in Arabic and Tamil. A caption in the video read O Crusaders, this bloody day (21-04) is our reward to you”, it said.
CCTV footage of the suicide bomber, who is responsible for the Katuwapitiya Church explosion, entering the Church and setting off the bomb, has been released to the media.
Accordingly, the arrival of the suicide bomber is marked on the first CCTV camera at around 8.56 am and at around 8.59 am, he enters the church premises.
The CCTV camera inside the Church has recorded the suicide bomber entering the church after touching a small child in front of the church. He enters the church through a door on the left side of the church before setting off the bomb amongst the devotees who were praying inside the church.
CCTV footage outside the church also records people near the area running towards the church at around 9.01.
Islamic state has claimed responsibility for coordinated bombings in Sri Lanka which killed 321 people and injured about 500 others, the group’s AMAQ news agency said on Tuesday.
The group did not give evidence for its claim, a Reuters news report said.
The statement on the Amaq news agency, which the group uses to put out statements, claimed that the attack was the work of fighters of the Islamic State”.
Until now, no group had claimed responsibility for the explosions, many of them suicide bombings.
Sri Lankan government has blamed the blasts on local Islamist group National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ).
In the meantime, Sri Lanka’s state minister of defense said the Easter attack on churches, hotels and other sites was carried out in retaliation” for the shooting massacre at two New Zealand mosques last month.
Ruwan Wijewardene, told Parliament the government possessed information that the series of bombings in and outside of Colombo that killed more than 300 people was carried out by an Islamic fundamentalist group” in response to the Christchurch attacks.
He did not provide evidence or explain the source of the information.
The six near-simultaneous attacks on three churches and three luxury hotels and three related blasts later Sunday was Sri Lanka’s deadliest violence in a decade.
Wijewardene said the death toll from the attack now stood at 321 people, with 500 wounded.
At least 45 children were among the more than 320 people killed in the suicide bomb attacks in Sri Lanka, the United Nations said Tuesday.
The total now is 45 children who died,” UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac told reporters in Geneva, stressing that others are wounded and are now fighting for their lives,” meaning the toll among minors from the Sunday attacks could rise.
Colombo, April 23 (The Citizen): The Sri Lankan government said here on Monday, that the a local religious group, National Thowheed Jamaath, was behind the suicide attacks in Colombo and two other towns on Sunday in which 290 people, including 38 foreign nationals, were killed and more than 500 were injured.
Since such a small local group could not have organized such wide-scale and deadly attacks, an international group was likely to have been involved”, cabinet spokesman Dr.Rajitha Senaratne said.
Addressing the media, Senaratne said that the international support” angle is being investigated. Gvernment is trying to ascertain how the suicide bombers were prepared.
Suicide bombers had attacked the Shangri-La hotel, Kingsbury Hotel and the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, all within a short distance from each other on the arterial Galle Road in Colombo. Suicide bombers also struck the Kochikade church near the Colombo harbor, a church in Negombo, north of Colombo, and the Zion church in Batticaloa in the Eastern province. Subsequently, explosions took place opposite a reception hall near the Dehiwala Zoo outside Colombo, and in a house in Mahawila Gardens, Dematagoda, in the heart of Colombo.
After a meeting at the National Security Council on Sunday, the government deployed forces to protect all places of worship, tourist hotels, hospitals, embassies, catholic leaders and other important buildings.
The Secretary to the President, Udaya R. Senevirathna, said that a National Operations Center had been established to guide the investigations. About 1,000 soldiers as well as a large number of policemen have been deployed.
The police have arrested 24 persons, all locals .But their religious affiliations have not been revealed. The police said on Sunday that they suspected the involvement of a foreign organization but would be able to give concrete information on this only by mid-week.
There is a Sri Lanka Tawheed Jamaat, which propagates Wahabism. It is against Sufi practices which are common among Sri Lankan Muslims. It is closely linked to the Tawheed Jamaat in Tamil Nadu. Recently it launched a Sinhalese translation of the Holy Quran with much fanfare.
However it is not yet clear if the Sri Lanka Tawheed Jamaat is the same as the National Thawheed Jamaath.
The police say that on April 11, there was intelligence that the National Thawheed Jamath’s leader Mohamad Safran was planning a suicide attack. Government spokesman Dr.Senaratne said there were inputs from international intelligence agencies earlier warning of such suicide attacks.
A spokesman of the Indian High Commission that they had obtained some information about the impending attacks and had shared whatever intelligence they had with the Sri Lankan government.
The Sri Lankan government has since provided the Indian High Commission greater security.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told the media that a small local group could not have carried such a long series of bombings simultaneously without expert support from overseas. He promised to inform the public, after consulting the police, whether any organized group was behind Sunday’s attacks.
The Prime Minister, however, made it a point to stress that the while the police are investigating the case, civil society and the political class should attend to the need to preserve peace and communal harmony and not be carried away by rumors.
The government has already blocked Facebook. And Whatsapp has been disabled partially.
President Maihripala Sirisena has appointed a three-man commission under a serving Supreme Court judge, Vijth Malalgoda, to investigate the blasts and report to him within two weeks.
Meanwhile the police have located a safe house allegedly used by the terror outfit. They have seized a van and its driver involved in transferring the C4 explosive used.
Former President and Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa said that the attacks were the result of weakening the security under the current administration.
We defeated brutal terrorists and ensured the safety of the people. But those who played a significant role in this, including intelligence officers and security forces personnel, have been harassed and demoralized. I blame the government for taking us back to the dark ages of fear,” Rajapaksa said.
The government announced on Monday that it is gazetting some of the clauses of the Prevention of Terrorism Act to tighten the law and order system.
The situation could have been worse if the 87 low explosive detonators found in the crowded Pettah market had been activated. Police have ordered a curfew between 8 pm on Monday and 4 am on Wednesday. All train services to the hill plantations country have been have been suspended.
Government on Monday also announced a grant of LKR 100,000 for the funeral of those killed in the blast and LKR 1 million to the next of kin,
Colombo, April 23: Dr. Rohan Gunaratna, Professor of Security Studies at the S. Rajaratnam Centre for International Studies in Singapore, says that the serial bombings in Colombo and two other towns in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, appear to be the handiwork of the Islamic State (IS) in collaboration with its Sri Lankan branch.”
Dr. Gunaratna, who is the foremost Sri Lankan expert on terrorism and political violence and author of Inside Al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror (2003) told this correspondent over the phone from Singapore on Monday: After the IS was ousted from Iraq and Syria, it branched out to other countries, and has been working in collaboration with local radical Islamic groups in several countries. It has a very significant worldwide network and has a presence in India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka.”
According to Dr. Gunaratna, the IS targets Western interests and Christian churches. Giving reasons for this, he said It is a Western coalition which had ousted the IS from its bases in Iraq and Syria. IS sees Christianity as the ideological underpinning of the Western world.” The IS has been aiding the process of radicalizing the Muslims in various parts of the world including Sri Lanka through various local affiliates, he said.
Dr. Gunaratna pointed out that it is not necessary to radicalize everybody to carry out the activities of the IS. A small number of radicalized persons is enough to carry out the IS’s designs,” he said. The targets hit by the bombings indicate that the issues are unrelated to local, Sri Lankan communal issues. In Sri Lanka, there is no conflict between Christians and Muslims and Christians and Buddhists for churches to be attacked in this way and that on a day like Easter Sunday.
While there had been communal clashes before, with Buddhist groups attacking Muslims, these were small and localized and never in the Mumbai serial blasts way as the problems in the island had not been so acute. If the blasts were an offshoot of the Buddhist-Muslim conflict, Buddhists temples and institutions would have been attacked but they were not.
However, there is a world-wide conflict between the Christian-West and radical Islam. The conflict manifests itself in attacks on Churches. The recent New Zealand attack against worshipers in a mosque is part of the larger world-wide religious conflict.
The targeting of posh hotels is also significant in as much as hotels like Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury are the Westerners’ favorites in Colombo. These hotels are also well known world-wide enabling the attackers to get maximum publicity for their deeds and for spreading fear among Westerners across the globe.
Not LTTE
Police and government sources are not pointing an accusing finger at a resurgent Tamil Tiger (LTTE) group as the Tamil Tigers and the Tamils as a whole, now want to take the help of the Western democracies and UN institutions to secure human rights and post-war justice. They would not incur the wrath of the West by indulging in acts like this at this stage of their struggle.
As mentioned earlier, Dr. Gunaratna suspects a local involvement. CNN has publicized a memo sent by the Deputy Inspector General of Police to the higher authorities warning them that a certain local Islamic group which he identified as Nations Thawahid Jaman” (seems to be a misspelling of the title) was planning a suicide attack.
The memo, seen by CNN, goes as follows:
April 11, 2019
Director – Ministerial Security Division Director – Judicial Security Division Director – Retired President’s Security Division Acting Director – Diplomatic Security Division Acting Director – Retired President’s Security Division
Reference to the letter of the defence ministry with regard to the above and the statement of IGP dated April 9, 2019 ref : STAFF05/IGP/PS/OUT/2860/19; We would like to draw your special attention to the a page no 2 to 4 of the statement of the State Intelligence service stating that information has been received regarding an alleged plan of suicidal attack by the leader of ‘Nation’s Thawahid Jaman ‘ Mohammad Saharan. According to information of that statement, would like you to give special attention and inform your staff to provide special security measures to the areas covered by your division.
Priyalal Dissanayake
Deputy Inspector General of Police
However, the government has not blamed any group for the attacks saying that investigations have only begun. However a plan to stage a suicide attack, the first by a Sri Lanka group, appears to have been there as per the DIG’s memo. This group could be an affiliate of the IS.
Remedial Measures
While the government’s agencies will go into the blasts thoroughly and a Presidential Commission of Inquiry is to be appointed to go into the matter and submit a report in two weeks, Dr. Gunaratna suggests that the government immediately take measures to tighten security which had become lax after the end of the war against the Tamil Tigers in 2009.
Prevention should be the aim of the State. For this, there should be stricter anti-terror laws in place. And to enable effective implementation there should be political stability. Under conditions of political instability anti-systemic and radical movements thrive,” the expert argued.
To stop the spread of radicalism, the social media and the internet should also be subject to surveillance and control. Internet service providers should be given precise guidelines and those providers who do not follow the guidelines should be taken to task,” Dr. Gunaratna said.
There is also a dire need for an inter-faith dialogue, he added. This is necessary to prevent communal animosities and radicalization of the various communities,” he added.
Political Consequences
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan leaders have uniformly appealed for the maintenance of communal harmony. Since Presidential and parliamentary elections are due in the next few months, mainstream political parties across the board are keen on cultivating the Muslims who are 8% of the population and who could influence the result as they did in 2015 when they voted en masse against Mahinda Rajapaksa and dethroned him.
It is therefore highly unlikely that any mainstream party, least of all the government, will encourage a communal conflagration. However, radical anti-Islamic outfits like the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) could make anti-Muslim and anti-Islam statements, but the people are unlikely to lend an ear to them.
Normalcy in Colombo
Sure enough, Colombo is quiet, though those who can remain at home are at home to be on the safe side. Transport has been restored and offices are functioning, though schools are closed. Experience of earlier blasts in Colombo and other places suggests that it will be business as usual in no time.
SColombo, April 23 (newsin.asia): Former Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said that he was shocked to witness the marring of the respectable history” of Sri Lankan intelligence service in the case of the serial bombings in Colombo and elsewhere on April 21 – Easter Sunday.Under his watch, the Sri Lankan intelligence service had ensured the safety of all Sri Lankans. It was strengthened to a level where it was among the world’s leading intelligence services, Gotabaya said in a statement.”It was the first and foremost responsibility of any civilized society to denounce terror attacks on Easter Sunday, which is a highly sensitive day. We should treat these cowardly and barbaric attacks with disgust. I express my condolences to all those who lost their lives in this tragedy and propose that it should be the common wish of the entire nation to wish for a speedy recovery of those who are injured,” he said.
The terror attacks suspended the heartbeat of Sri Lankans who were breathing freely after the 30-year war. Terrorism comes in different forms but in the same ruthless manner,” he said.
We are at a time where we should transform this hurt into unyielding courage. Being united in the face of obstacles is the easiest way to defeat forces against the country, which I have realised from experience. We should unite under the national flag for the country,” he said.
Colombo, April 23 (Ada Derana) – All police stations in Colombo have reportedly been advised to stay on high alert with regard to a suspicious lorry and a small van entering the city.
On the receipt of this intelligence, the DIG in charge of Colombo District has notified all senior police officers in the Colombo District and all police stations to stay on high alert.
Information on suspicious vehicles and other suspicious incidents can be relayed to the Air Force emergency call unit through the hotline 116, stated Sri Lanka Air Force Group Captain Gihan Seneviratne.
Security forces have received intelligence regarding a suspicious lorry and a small van entering Colombo.
Police Spokesman’s Office stated that all police stations in Colombo have been instructed to tighten security in the city.
Additionally, vehicle owners are advised to display their contact numbers and names clearly in front of their respective vehicles when parking at public places.
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.
Former CIA station chief Daniel Hoffman called the deadly Easter Sunday explosions at multiple churches and hotels in Sri Lanka an intelligence failure.”
This is by all accounts an intelligence failure. Security services are responsible for penetrating local extremist groups, understanding their nexus to other overseas transnational groups and then collecting intelligence so they can pre-empt attacks and that didn’t happen in this case and as a result we have almost 300 dead and 500 wounded,” said Hoffman, a Fox News contributor, on America’s Newsroom” on Monday.
A pair holding dual U.S. and British nationalities was among the 11 foreigners killed after a series of explosions struck three churches and three luxury hotels in and just outside Sri Lanka’s capital Easter Sunday, leaving at least 290 people dead and more than 500 others injured, officials said.
The U.S. State Department confirmed in a statement that several U.S. citizens were among those killed” in the explosions, although no more information was immediately available.
One of the things I think we’ll be looking at is the number of Sri Lankans who traveled to the so-called Islamic caliphate, some of whom apparently have returned. Were they part of this group? Did they make contacts with Al Qaeda or with the Islamic state? Those are open questions,” said Hoffman.
He added, I just don’t believe this was a locally-conducted attack. There’s too many people. Already 24 arrested. It’s a massive undertaking with a support network I think that would demand international collaboration but we don’t have a lot of facts.”
The six nearly simultaneous blasts—followed hours later by two more explosions—marked the bloodshed as among the worst since the South Asian country’s 26-year civil war ended a decade ago, a spokesperson for the Sri Lanka police said.
Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said all of the suicide bombers were Sri Lankan citizens from a domestic Muslim militant group named National Thowfeek Jamaath, but that authorities suspect foreign links.
Police said more than a dozen suspects have been arrested, though there was no immediate claim of responsibility.
This terrorist attack really bears all the hallmarks of an Al Qaeda attack, where you had three churches and three hotels frequented by foreigners all attacked over a short amount of time and over distance, that’s a traditional way that Al Qaeda likes to mount attacks. Multiple spectacular attacks to drive first responders to multiple areas and achieve maximum effect in the press afterwards,” said Hoffman. What’s surprising about this attack is that no one thus far has claimed responsibility.”
Ukraine has elected a professional comedian, of all people, as its President. Guatemala is the first country to have had a vaudevillian as the Head of State, a columnist tells us in his article, on this page, today. Several other countries have done likewise if the freakish conduct of their leaders is anything to go by. Sri Lanka has been an exception, though. It does not elect jokers to govern it; instead, it handpicks idiots and places them at the levers of power. If there had been anyone with an iota of intelligence, within the ranks of the yahapalana government, he or she would have swiftly acted on a warning of impending terror attacks, issued by the state intelligence outfits, more than 10 days prior to the Easter Sunday carnage.
Police Spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekera did not look intelligent, at Sunday’s media briefing, when he refused to be drawn on the leaked intelligence document containing the aforesaid warning. There should have been a higher ranking officer, at the press conference, to field questions. The IGP himself should have been present there, given the gravity of the situation.
President Maithripala Sirisena, who is the Minister of Defence and the Commander-in-Chief, was out of the country on a private visit, at the time of the terror attacks. Cabinet Spokesman Dr. Rajitha Senaratne told the media, yesterday, that no Acting Defence Minister had been appointed during the President’s absence. Reading between the lines, one sees an attempt by the UNP to lay the blame for the government’s serious lapse solely at the President’s doorstep. The President and the UNP are notorious for playing political ping-pong on matters of national importance.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, addressing the media, on Sunday, promised a probe into the allegation that the intelligence warning, in question, had gone unheeded. He claimed that it had not been brought to the notice of the Cabinet. Curiously, Minister Harin Fernando told the media, on the same day, that his father, receiving treatment in hospital, had been aware of security threats and warned him to be careful. Is it that Minister Fernando’s father is better informed of security affairs than both the President and the Prime Minister? Will the police care to ask the minister and his father how they had been informed of the security threats?
Minister Kabir Hashim dropped a bombshell, at yesterday’s government media briefing, on the Easter Sunday mayhem and the security situation in the country. He revealed that he had, some moons ago, brought to President Maithripala Sirisena’s notice the existence of an extremist group and Sirisena had promised prompt action. Hashim’s secretary was shot by the extremist group in retaliation.
A subsequent police raid on a hideout, run by the group in Wanathavilluwe, Puttalam, had led to the arrest of two suspects, but they had been released due to the intervention of a powerful politician, Hashim said, revealing that one of them had carried out an attack on Sunday.
Hashim’s shocking revelation is a damning indictment on the yahapalana administration. It is incumbent upon the government to have a high-level probe conducted into the very serious allegation and name the politician who intervened to secure the release of the two high-profile suspects from police custody. Legal action must be taken against him, regardless of his position. He deserves to be thrown behind bars. Will the government get cracking?
It takes a lot of courage to stand up to extremism, and Minister Hashim deserves praise for taking on the murderous outfit at the risk of life and limb. He has set an example to the leaders of other communities, troubled by fanatics.
The tragedy of Good Friday returned on Easter Sunday when death suddenly struck scores of Christians celebrating the Festival of Life, yesterday.
Our condolences and continuing compassion must be extended to those whose loved ones were snatched away or injured, in places considered safe. Our sorrow and compassion should also specially encircle the families of all those visitors to our country who were killed and injured. We are deeply sorry at your loss in our land of hospitality.
Work for the people
The abrupt termination of Easter Day services on the advice of the police, was a strong reminder that our work is not yet finished. The solemn rising of the people to move out in their twos and threes, somewhat symbolized that this unfinished work now lies with the people of our country.
Bankrupt legislators
This is because our legislators are no longer able to steer our common destiny with responsibility. Most are simply unable to anticipate conflict and work for the common good; they have been immersed in self-interest for too long. Few can offer empathy to the victims of these crimes and even fewer have the ability to call the nation to engage in introspection, the need of the hour. The predictably emerging blame game, along with the typical public exploitation of human suffering, is ample evidence of this bankruptcy.
The potential of the people
The spontaneous response of medical and para-medical personnel, the police and armed forces and general public, in assisting the injured and the dying, is to be commended. This behaviour is a sacred sign of the immense potential our people have, to cross boundaries and heal wounds. It also indicates that we reach our highest human stature when we move beyond the invasion of political party agendas. We are to consequently prevent legislators from stealing our integrity to further their devious ends, in our work of nation building.
A day of national mourning and reflection
These heinous crimes must be condemned in the name of our common humanity. But, with the condemnation, we are to counter the intentions of the perpetrators who seek blood for blood. The declaration of a day of national mourning, and reflection, will help us rise to this task. If on this day people of diverse religious and secular persuasions will publicly gather to demonstrate solidarity with the grieved and ask what went wrong, our actions will be stronger than the intentions of the perpetrators.
If out of this crisis we will even now, read the signs of the times and come together to form continuing people’s movements to build social trust and assert dialogue as the best method of resolving our differences, we will then rise to a new life out of the ashes of the Easter Sunday bombings.
One of the suicide bombers, who carried out the Easter Sunday attacks, had been released from police custody a few months back due to pressure from a powerful politician, Minister Kabir Hashim revealed, yesterday.
Fielding questions, Petroleum Resource Development Minister Kabir Hashim told The Island that following some incidents in the Mawanella area, Intelligence had unearthed cache of explosives at Lacktowatta in Wanathawilluwa, Puttalam. During the raid two key suspects were captured. However, due to the intervention of a powerful politician, they had been released and one of them had been involved in Sunday’s attacks, the Minister said.
In January, the CID obtained a three-month detention order from the Defence Secretary to interrogate those arrested with some 100 kilos of explosives and 100 detonators in Wanathawilluwa.
The suspects, including the owner of the land where some of the explosives were found buried, were arrested by the CID.
The CID also recovered 20 litres of nitrate acid, fuse wire, two firearms, a stock of ammunition, a computer, a camera and a stock of dry rations.
Minister Hashim said his secretary had been shot by the extremists in retaliation for the police raid on their hideout.
This haul of explosives was recovered following investigations carried out on the telephone numbers found in a mobile phone of a suspect arrested over the incident where Buddha statutes were vandalised at Mawanella in January.
Minister Rajitha Senaratne, yesterday, said that international intelligence agencies had warned the government, on April 04, of an impending attack in the country.
He told a media briefing at Temple Trees, that the Chief of National Intelligence had warned the Inspector General of Police (IGP) of the attacks before April 11. “We are waiting for the President to remove the IGP,” he added.
Hashim also said that the Prime Minister and the State Minister of Defence had not been invited to National Security Council (NDC) meetings since December last year.
Minister Senaratne claimed that the NSC had not complied with a request for a meeting with the Prime Minister on Sunday morning.
Commenting on Sunday’s attacks, Hashim said that a local organisation identified as the National Tawheed Jamath was suspected of plotting Sunday’s explosions. He added that all suicide bombers were believed to be Sri Lankans. “We are conducting investigations to find out whether there have been any foreign links.”
Fox News host Jesse Watters went off on those referring to victims of the Sri Lanka bombings as Easter worshippers,” accusing them of making up a term in order to pander to Muslims.
Democrats, including former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, faced a backlash from conservatives for using the term Easter worshippers” in their initial responses to the attacks.
Look at some of the leading Democrats, how they characterized it,” Watters said on The Five Monday. They didn’t use ‘Christians.’ They didn’t say ‘a lot of churches.’ They actually said ‘Easter worshipers were under attack.’ You don’t call Muslims ‘Ramadan worshipers.’ You don’t call Jews ‘Passover worshipers.’ It’s a made-up phrase.”
Watters continued: Why did they make up phrases like this? This is one of the reasons why people don’t trust liberals because they are not in touch with reality. They do this because they are pandering to Muslims. Because a lot of liberals feel they are so upset with how other people think about them and if they are thought up to be insensitive, that drives them crazy.”
It’s worth noting that Easter is an exclusively Christian holiday, so it’s unclear why using the term Easter worshippers” does much to obscure the faith of the victims. What’s more, the phrase is not made up – the same formulation has been used on the air at… Fox News
Daniel Linsey, 19 and his sister Amelie, 15, escaped death in the dining room of the Shangri-La Hotel but died moments later when a second bomber struck
More than 300 people were killed in Easter Sunday’s eight coordinated attacks
Lawyer Ben Nicholson confirmed his wife and two children died in one blast
The island nation remains on lockdown and police have found more explosives
A British teenage brother and sister escaped one of the Sri Lankan terror blasts only to be killed by a second, it was revealed last night.
Daniel Linsey, 19 and his younger sister Amelie, 15, were having breakfast with their father Matthew at the luxury Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo before their flight home.
The teenagers somehow survived when a suicide bomb was detonated among the diners, including many tourists. But they died moments later when a second bomber struck as they tried to escape the carnage.
They are among almost 300 people massacred – including six more Britons – after suicide bombers cut down tourists and Easter Sunday mass worshippers, including dozens of children.
Amelie Linsey, 15, left, and brother Daniel, 19, right, were in the dining room of the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo when a bomber struck but escaped, only to be killed moments later by a second terrorist’s blast
Last night, the island was under a state of emergency after the explosions. In other developments:
British father Ben Nicholson confirmed he had lost his whole family in the attacks. His wife Anita, 42 and their children Alex, 14, and Annabel, 11, were killed as they ate breakfast;
Asos billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen lost three of his four children in the attack while on holiday with his wife;
Senior Sri Lankan officials were repeatedly warned for three years that an attack would happen – but nothing was done because of political infighting;
Fears were growing that more explosives are on the streets after police found 87 detonators and a pipe bomb filled with 110lb of explosives – big enough to cause a 400-yard blast radius;
A video emerged of alleged ringleader Moulvi Zahran Hashim issuing threats against ‘infidels’ with a Union Jack in the background.
Devastated Mr Linsey, 61, an American city fund manager, returned to the family home in central London, yesterday to be with his British wife Angelina and his other two sons – aged 12 and 21 – who were not on the holiday.
David Linsey, 21, told the Mail the family were on the last day of their Easter break: ‘They were due to fly home that day and had been having breakfast when the first bomb went off.
Amelie Linsey on a recent trip to Vietnam. She was killed, aged 15, in the Easter Sunday terror attack in Sri Lanka which claimed 300 lives including eight Britons
Londoner Matthew Linsey, pictured several years ago with his children Daniel and Amelie, both of whom were murdered on Easter Sunday
‘My dad said they were all caught up in a second explosion as they tried to escape. Both my brother and sister were instantly unconscious and were taken to hospital but they never woke up. My dad is shocked and has not said much apart from that. He is trying to be strong for my little brother who is 12 and my mum.’
Mr Linsey was said to have had suffered shrapnel wounds to his face and was yesterday being comforted by relatives at the family home. Oxford student David described how his father initially hoped Amelie had survived the impact of the blast as she had no major visible injuries.
‘At first they didn’t think Amelie was injured badly as there were no obvious wounds. Someone else took her to hospital but she must have had internal injuries.
‘I think they both died instantly as they never woke up. We cannot believe this has happened. I can’t describe just how devastating it is. You don’t think it will happen to you. We miss them so much already,’ he said. The devastated brother said the family has decided not to watch the news and were not ready to hear emerging questions about security blunders which could have prevented the deadly attacks.
He said the three had been on a trip of life time touring Asia over the Easter period and had travelled to Vietnam before arriving in Sri Lanka just days before the tragedy. He said: ‘They were really excited about it. It was supposed to be a nice Easter break and for them to spend time with my dad.
Ben Nicholson lost his wife Anita, 42 and their children Alex, 14, and Annabel, 11, who were killed as they ate breakfast
‘Daniel had always wanted to go to Sri Lanka and they had been to see the elephants.’
He said his brother, who was due to complete his A-levels, ‘loved travelling’ and planned to go to university to study tourism.
While Amelie, who was a pupil at the independent Godolphin and Latymer School, was said to have ‘loved looking after the family’ despite her young age. He said: ‘My sister was so loving, she was the centre of the family and kept us all together and my brother was one of the kindest people you could imagine.’
The siblings are among 291 people killed in the atrocities which have injured more than 500.
Many visitors have already left Sri Lanka, a popular holiday destination for Britons and other Western tourists. Shops and restaurants pulled down their shutters and cars stayed off usually busy roads as the government imposed a strict curfew.
Social media sites were shut down to avoid locals spreading panic with unfounded rumours.
A blood-spattered statue of Jesus Christ is pictured while crime scene officials inspect the site of a bomb blast, as the sun shines through the blown-out roof, inside St Sebastian’s Church in Negombo
Sri Lankan military stand guard near the explosion site at a church in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka
Hospital staff push a trolley with a casualty after an explosion at a church in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka
State minister of defence Ruwan Wijewardene said investigators have identified the culprits behind the ‘terrorist’ attacks (pictuerd: Shangri La hotel, Colombo)
The police and the military were also granted draconian powers by Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena to detain and interrogate suspects without court orders. Chaos unfolded on the morning of Easter Sunday when coordinated blasts ripped through churches and luxury hotels carried out by seven suicide bombers from a militant group called National Thowheed Jamaath.
Two of the bombers blew themselves up at the Shangri-La Hotel on Colombo’s seafront. Others targeted three churches and two hotels. Footage of a bomber wearing a backpack wandering around a church moments before detonation emerged yesterday.
A fourth hotel and a house in a suburb of Colombo were also hit, but it was not immediately clear how those attacks were carried out.
A large bomb defused late on Sunday on an access road to the international airport, and another blew up in a van before it could experts could carry out a controlled explosion. Three police officers were killed by two suicide bombers who detonated their vests when their house was raided. One bomber was a woman who was married to one of the Shangri-La Hotel attackers.
Officials said nine suspects were remanded in custody yesterday – seven Muslims, one of Sinhalese background and one Tamil. Two women died in an explosion at a safe house linked to the unnamed suicide bomber who died at the Shangri-La Hotel. They are believed to be his wife and sister.
Julian Emmanuel, 48, an NHS doctor from Surrey, was in the Cinammon Grand hotel with his family and was in bed when a blast ripped through its restaurant. He said: ‘We saw someone who had an almost severed arm – there were shocked children covered in dust. It was all very traumatising. We will never forget this.’
An Australian survivor of the attack, identified only as Sam, described the scene as ‘absolute carnage’. He said he and a travel partner were having breakfast at the Shangri-La when two blasts went off. He said he had seen two men wearing backpacks seconds before the blasts.
Security forces inspect the St. Anthony’s Shrine after an explosion hit St Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade in Colombo
A map showing where the eight blasts went off , six of them in very quick succession on Easter Sunday morning
‘There were people screaming and dead bodies all around,’ he said. ‘Kids crying, kids on the ground, I don’t know if they were dead or not, just crazy.’ Doctors said the Islamic State-inspired terrorists filled the bombs with ball bearings and other pieces of metal to cause maximum damage.
Some victims suffered such horrific injuries that identifying their bodies could take some time.
Cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said an international network was involved, but did not elaborate. Defence minister Ruwan Wijewardene said those responsible for the atrocities were religious extremists, but no group has yet claimed responsibility. The bombings represent the deadliest violence in Sri Lanka since a devastating civil war ended a decade ago on the island.
The Queen joined world leaders in offering her condolences in the wake of the terror attack, and paid tribute to the medical and emergency services helping out.
Scotland Yard said it is ‘continually monitoring’ the threats Britain faces, including to places of worship. The FBI and Interpol are assisting the investigation.
The Sri Lankan government has admitted it failed to act on multiple warnings before a coordinated series of attacks ripped through churches and hotels on Easter Sunday, and said it feared an international terror group might have been behind the atrocities.
A government spokesman, Rajitha Senaratne, revealed that warnings were received in the days before the attacks, which killed 290 people and injured at least 500 more, including from foreign intelligence services.
He said one of the warnings they received referred to Nations Thawahid Jaman (NTJ), a little-known local Islamist group which has previously defaced Buddhist statues. But Senaratne, who is also health minister, said he did not believe a local group could have acted alone. There must be a wider international network behind it,” he said.
A US official directly familiar with the US initial intelligence assessment said the group responsible for the attacks was likely to have been inspired by ISIS. No group has yet claimed responsibility.
The security situation remained fluid on Monday. Police found 87 detonators in a private terminal of the main bus station in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, and a controlled explosion was carried out on a van near St. Anthony’s church, one of three churches targeted in the attack. On Sunday evening, an improvised explosive device (IED) was defused near the capital’s Bandaranaike International Airport.
With the situation in flux, a dusk-til-dawn curfew was imposed for the second night in a row. Sri Lankan authorities declared a state of emergency from midnight Monday and said Tuesday would be a national day of mourning.
Intelligence failures would be investigated, Senaratne said. We saw the warnings and we saw the details given,” he told reporters at a press conference. We are very very sorry, as a government we have to say — we have to apologize to the families and the institutions about this incident.” Police have arrested 24 people in connection with the suicide attacks, the worst violence the South Asian island has seen since its bloody civil war ended 10 years ago. A total of six suicide bombers were involved, Sri Lanka military spokesman Sumith Atapattu told CNN.
Most of the dead and injured were Sri Lankan. At least 39 tourists were killed and 28 injured, the country’s tourism minister said.
Of the foreign nationals who died, four were US citizens, eight were British, two of whom held dual US-UK nationality; as well as three Indians, two Australians, two Chinese cousins, one person from the Netherlands, two Turkish citizens and one Portuguese national. The blasts appear to have targeted tourism hotspots, as well as churches, in an effort to gain maximum global attention.
The attacks occurred in a period of political instability in Sri Lanka. In October, the Sri Lankan President attempted to depose the Prime Minister and replace him with a favored successor. That move backfired and the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, was reinstated in December.
The President, Maithripala Sirisena, was out of the country at the time of Sunday’s attacks.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said warnings about a potential attack had not been shared with him or other government ministers. Sajith Premadasa, minister of housing construction and cultural affairs, said security officers were guilty of negligence and incompetence.”
It is unclear whether the details contained in the warning matched the atrocity that eventually took place on Sunday.
Little is known about the NTJ, the Islamist extremist organization that has been linked to the atrocities. There were doubts that it would have had the capacity to carry out such a sophisticated and coordinated attack alone. Transnational Islamists are known to operate in places like Pakistan, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
The intelligence services in the country are not integrated, says Commander of the Army Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake.
He stated this addressing the media at the Catholic Archbishop’s House this morning (22).
The Army Chief called on His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith to discuss the Easter Day attacks that took place yesterday (21) and the situation prevailing in the country.
He stated that proper communication links should be established among all intelligence services in the country.
The police were informed of the intelligence report on the possible attacks, however, such information was not shared with the Army, Lieutenant General Senanayake stated.
The organization that is responsible for the attacks has been identified as of now and they are internationally backed, he further commented.
The Army Chief said that a request was made to confer the authority on the Army to take necessary actions to prevent such criminal acts.
Colombo, April 22 (newsin.asia): As of Monday April 22, 2019 7.00 pm, the number of foreign nationals who have been identified as killed is 31.
The fatalities are: one from Bangladesh; two from China, eight from India, one from France, one from Japan, one from The Netherlands, one from Portugal, two from Saudi Arabia, one from Spain, two from Turkey, six from the UK, two holding US and UK nationalities, and two holding Australian and Sri Lankan nationalities.
Additionally, 14 foreign nationals are unaccounted for at present, and could be among the unidentified victims at the Colombo Judicial Medical Officer’s mortuary.
Seventeen foreign nationals injured in the attacks are receiving treatment at the Colombo National Hospital and a private hospital in Colombo while others have been treated and discharged.
The Foreign Ministry continues to be in close contact with the relevant hospital authorities to identify the remaining victims. The Ministry will continue to monitor the welfare of the foreign nationals receiving treatment.
An emergency hotline to assist families of the affected foreign nationals is operational at +94 112323015
There was no claim of responsibility for the attack but suspicion was focusing on Islamist militants in the Buddhist-majority country
COLOMBO, April 22 (Reuters) – Sri Lanka said on Monday it was invoking emergency powers in the aftermath of devastating bomb attacks on hotels and churches, blamed on militants with foreign links, in which 290 people were killed and nearly 500 wounded.
The emergency law, which gives police and the military extensive powers to detain and interrogate suspects without court orders, will go into effect at midnight on Monday, the president’s office said.
Colombo, the seaside capital of the Indian Ocean island, was jittery on Monday. Police said 87 bomb detonators were found at the city’s main bus station, while an explosive went off near a church where scores were killed on Sunday when bomb squad officials were trying to defuse it.
A night curfew will go into effect at 8 p.m., the government announced.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attack but suspicion was focusing on Islamist militants in the Buddhist-majority country.
Investigators said seven suicide bombers took part in the attacks while a government spokesman said an international network was involved.
Police had received a tip-off of a possible attack on churches by a little-known domestic Islamist group some 10 days ago, according to a document seen by Reuters.
The intelligence report, dated April 11 and seen by Reuters, said a foreign intelligence agency had warned authorities of possible attacks on churches by the leader of the group, the National Thawheed Jama’ut. It was not immediately clear what action, if any, was taken on the tip-off.
Police said 24 people had been arrested, all of whom were Sri Lankan, but they gave no more details.
International anti-terrorism experts said even if a local group had carried out the attacks, it was likely that al Qaeda or Islamic State were involved, given the level of sophistication.
Two of the suicide bombers blew themselves up at the luxury Shangri-La Hotel on Colombo’s seafront, said Ariyananda Welianga, a senior official at the government’s forensic division. The others targeted three churches and two other hotels.
A fourth hotel and a house in a suburb of the capital Colombo were also hit, but it was not immediately clear how those attacks were carried out.
“Still the investigations are going on,” Welianga said.
Most of the attacks came during Easter services and when hotel guests were sitting down for breakfast buffets.
“Guests who had come for breakfast were lying on the floor, blood all over,” an employee at Kingsbury Hotel told Reuters.
Cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said an international network was involved, but did not elaborate.
“We do not believe these attacks were carried out by a group of people who were confined to this country,” Senaratne said. “There was an international network without which these attacks could not have succeeded.”
The president, Maithripala Sirisena, said in a statement the government would seek foreign assistance to track the overseas links.
Sri Lanka was at war for decades with ethnic minority Tamil separatists, most of them Hindu, but violence had largely ended since the government victory in the civil war, 10 years ago.
Sri Lanka’s 22 million people include minority Christians, Muslims and Hindus.
FOREIGN VICTIMS
Most of the dead and wounded were Sri Lankans although government officials said 32 foreigners were killed, including British, U.S., Australian, Turkish, Indian, Chinese, Danish, Dutch and Portuguese nationals.
Denmark’s richest man Anders Holch Povlsen and his wife lost three of their four children in the attacks, a spokesman for his fashion firm said.
A British mother and son at breakfast at the Shangri-La, British media reported, while five Indian political workers were killed at the same hotel, relatives told Indian media.
The hotel said several guests and three employees were killed.
The U.S. State Department said in a travel advisory “terrorist groups” were plotting possible attacks in Sri Lanka and targets could include tourist spots, transport hubs, shopping malls, hotels, places of worship and airports.
There were fears the attacks could spark communal violence, with police reporting late on Sunday there had been a petrol bomb attack on a mosque in the northwest and arson attacks on two shops owned by Muslims in the west.
BOMB FOUND NEAR AIRPORT
Traffic was uncharacteristically thin in normally bustling Colombo after an island-wide curfew was lifted earlier Monday.
Soldiers with automatic weapons stood guard outside major hotels and the World Trade Centre in the business district, a Reuters witness said.
An Australian survivor, identified only as Sam, told Australia’s 3AW radio the hotel was a scene of “absolute carnage”.
He said he and a travel partner were having breakfast at the Shangri-La when two blasts went off. He said he had seen two men wearing backpacks seconds before the blasts.
“There were people screaming and dead bodies all around,” he said. “Kids crying, kids on the ground, I don’t know if they were dead or not, just crazy.”
There were similar scenes of carnage at two churches in or near Colombo, and a third church in the northeast town of Batticaloa, where worshippers had gathered. Pictures showed bodies on the ground and blood-spattered pews and statues.
Dozens were killed in a blast at the Gothic-style St Sebastian church in Katuwapitiya, north of Colombo. Police said they suspected it was a suicide attack.
Questions over why the intelligence report warning was not acted upon could feed into a feud between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the president.
Sirisena fired the premier last year and installed opposition strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa in his stead. Weeks later, he was forced to re-instate Wickremesinghe because of pressure from the Supreme Court but their relationship is still fraught as a presidential election nears.
(Reporting by Sanjeev Miglani Additional reporting by Ranga Sirilal Writing by Paul Tait and Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Michael Perry, Robert Birsel)
Sri Lankan security forces secure the area around St Anthony’s Shrine, one of the churches targeted in multiple suicide bombings on Easter Sunday. Photograph: Getty Images
Sri Lankan officials have blamed a small local group called National Thowheeth Jama’ath for the bomb attacks on Sunday. It is unclear whether this assertion is based on new information discovered by investigators since the atrocity or a notice circulated by Sri Lankan police 10 days before the blasts, which said the group was planning suicide attacks against churches.
There is a similarly named Islamist organisation active on the island nation – the Sri Lanka Thowheeth Jama’ath. It is unclear if this group is the one referred to by the warning, which was based on information passed to Sri Lankan authorities by a foreign intelligence service, believed to be either India’s or the US’s.
The SLTJ is small, based in the east of Sri Lanka, and has been involved in extremist rhetoric as well as being linked to acts of vandalism against Buddhist statues. Its name describes a movement for the unity of God, a favourite label adopted by Islamist militants and a key concept in conservative strands of Islam.
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.
The targets – churches and luxury hotels in high-profile locations – are familiar from many previous attacks by Islamist extremists in south Asia and beyond. Though western attention has been diverted by violence closer to home, the region has had a high level of religiously motivated terrorism for decades. There has also been a surge in Hindu and Buddhist extremism in recent years.
Islamist militant attacks have largely been the work of local groups rather than major international organisations such as Islamic State and al-Qaida, despite the continuing efforts of both to expand in the arc between Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Each group has built links with local factions and individuals, working through what are effectively subcontractors”.
Sometimes the links have been more direct, however. At its peak, Isis successfully attracted a very significant number of recruits from the Maldives, the islands close to Sri Lanka, with which there are strong transport and commercial links.
From descriptions by witnesses, it appears likely the attackers were young local men. This would fit a longstanding rule that almost all terrorist attacks anywhere in the world primarily involve people living near or even brought up close to their targets.
Much of the focus is also now on the failure of the Sri Lankan security agencies. A key factor here is the degree to which different branches and factions within the police, intelligence and military are aligned with various politicians and political parties.
The telecommunications minister, Harin Fernando, gave an unwitting example of how politicised the vision of decision-makers can be. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday, Fernando, who on Sunday night tweeted images of the memo from the Sri Lankan intelligence services dated 11 April, which laid out details of a possible planned attack, 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.”
The police today informed Colombo Chef Magistrate’s Court that the suicide bomber of the Shangri-La hotel had been identified as Insan Seelavan and owned a factory in Avissawella- Wellampitiya road.
Nine employees of the said factory were arrested by the Wellampitiya Police and were remanded till May 6 after being produced in the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court.
The Police also informed the court that the suicide bomber was suspected to have links with other suicide killers died in the Dematagoda blast. (
