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Sri Lanka
Day 9: Sri Lanka raids headquarters of hardline group suspected in church bombings
2019-04-29
Day 8 can be seen here.
[DAWN] Sri Lankan police raided the headquarters of a hardline group founded by the suspected ringleader behind the Easter suicide kabooms of churches and hotels, a Rooters witness said, as Sunday mass was cancelled due to fears of further attacks.

Armed police in the town of Kattankudy searched the headquarters of the National Thawheedh Jamaath (NTJ) and detained one man at the premises, a Rooters news hound at the scene said. Police did not comment.

On Saturday the government banned the NTJ under new emergency laws. The authorities believe Zahran Hashim, the founder of NTJ, criminal masterminded and was one of the nine jacket wallahs in the attacks on Easter Sunday which killed 253 people. The hard boy Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group grabbed credit for the attacks.

Police sources told Rooters on Sunday that Zahran's father and two brothers had been killed two days earlier in a shootout with security forces. A relative identified the three men in a video circulating on social media calling for war against non-Moslems.

The Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Ranjith, who had asked churches to suspend Sunday mass due to security fears, delivered a televised special sermon from a chapel at his home. The service was attended by President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and former president Mahinda Rajapaksa. The archbishop said earlier this week that he had seen an internal security document warning of further attacks on churches.

"We cannot kill someone in the name of God ... It is a great tragedy that happened," the archbishop said in his sermon.

"We extend our hand of friendship and fraternity to all our brothers and sisters of whatever class, society or religion that differentiates us." The archbishop and politicians then lit candles to commemorate the victims.

Most of those killed in the Easter Sunday attacks were Sri Lankans. The dead also included 40 foreigners, including British, US, Australian, Ottoman Turkish, Indian, Chinese, Danish, Dutch and Portuguese nationals.

Police believe that radical Moslem preacher Zahran led the NTJ ‐ or a splinter faction ‐ to mount the attacks in Colombo as well as on a church in Batticaloa in the east.

The authorities have named the other group suspected of involvement as Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim.

Neither group were well known before the attacks but the government has come under heavy criticism for not heeding intelligence warnings of the bombings, including one from India's spy service hours before the attacks.
CNN adds:
In Friday's shootout, one wounded suspect fled on a motorbike, and another suspected terrorist could be on the run as well, Maj. Gen. Aruna Jayasekera said.

One of the six suspected terrorists found dead has been identified as Mohamed Niyas, known to the authorities as a prominent member of the National Tawheed Jamath. Earlier in a statement from the army, Niyas was identified as the brother-in-law of the alleged ringleader of the Easter Sunday attacks, Zahran Hashim.

The Sri Lankan army revealed Saturday that one of the suspected Easter Sunday bombers -- Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed, who killed himself while detonating a bomb at the Tropical Inn Guesthouse on the outskirts of Colombo — traveled to Turkey with a friend "in the hope of entering Syria." While the friend later joined ISIS in Syria, Mohamed returned to Sri Lanka.

Jihadi John was mentor to Easter bombings ringleader Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed

[THETIMES] Jihadi John, known to his mother as Mohammed Emwazi, was the leader of the brutal ISIS execution cell called ‘the Beatles’, because all the members were English. Unlike some of his buddies, Jihadi John died in Syria by drone zap...

#SriLanka government has banned all types of face covers and veils, will go in effect immediately
[TWITTER]
Posted by:Fred

#1  CAIR must have a branch office.
Posted by: Woodrow   2019-04-29 16:57  

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