Sri Lanka says international network behind Easter terror attacks

Special Task Force Bomb Squad officers prepare to defuse a suspected van before it exploded near a church that was attacked in Colombo. Picture: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

Special Task Force Bomb Squad officers prepare to defuse a suspected van before it exploded near a church that was attacked in Colombo. Picture: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

Published Apr 22, 2019

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Colombo - 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.

Reuters

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