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Sri Lanka | ||||||
Day 6: Sri Lanka attacks: 16 more arrests, death count reduced to 253, hunt for more jihadis | ||||||
2019-04-26 | ||||||
Some of the suspects “may go out for a suicide attack,” Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in an interview with The Associated Press. Approximately 250 people were killed in the string of suicide bombings at churches and luxury hotels in and around the capital, Colombo, Sri Lanka’s health ministry said late Thursday. The death toll was revised down from previous police estimates of 359 people. Police, meanwhile, issued a public appeal for information about three women and two men suspected of involvement in the attacks. Wickremesinghe also said that the father of two of the suspected suicide bombers, Colombo spice dealer Mohammad Yusuf Ibrahim,
“People like that would not have wanted their sons to blow themselves up,” he said. Sri Lankan authorities have blamed a local extremist group, National Towheed Jamaat, whose leader, alternately named Mohammed Zahran or Zahran Hashmi, became known to Muslim leaders three years ago for his incendiary online speeches. On Wednesday, junior defense minister Ruwan Wijewardene said the attackers had broken away from National Towheed Jamaat and another group, which he identified only as “JMI.” Wijewardene said many of the suicide bombers were highly educated and came from well-to-do families. The prime minister said it appeared that Sri Lanka’s wealthiest and best-traveled Muslims were most susceptible to the doctrine professed by the Islamic State group. “They were too educated and therefore, they were misled,” Wickremesinghe said. The bombers were wealthy enough to have financed the entire operation themselves, though they would have needed outside help for training and bomb-building expertise, Wickremsinghe said. He said that authorities still hadn’t confirmed whether Zahran, who was supposed to have led one of suicide missions, was among the corpses recovered from the scenes or still at large. Wickremesinghe said Thursday that security forces were trying to help Muslim Ahmadis from Pakistan seeking refugee status in Sri Lanka, who said they had been attacked and beaten in the days following the bombings.
Authorities made fresh arrests and stepped up security measures. A senior Catholic priest told AFP that all public services were being suspended and all churches closed "on the advice of security forces". Private burials will still be carried out. Security forces using state of emergency powers arrested 16 more suspects overnight, bringing the total in custody to 74 since the attacks. Brigadier Sumith Atapattu said the army had increased its deployment on the streets from 5,000 to 6,300, with the navy and air force also deploying an additional 2,000 personnel. Authorities also banned drone flights.
Sri Lanka Health Ministry revises death toll of easter Sunday bombings to 253 from previous 359 after a calculation error [TWITTER]
Sri Lanka police arrest 3 persons along with 21 hand grenade type, locally made low explosives [TWITTER]
Another #IS related group has released a new propaganda video including perpetrators of #SriLankaAttacks [TWITTER]
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