Easter massacre: Sri Lankan bomber ‘studied in Australia’
Sri Lanka’s defence minister has revealed one of the perpetrators behind the Easter massacre completed his postgraduate studies at an Australian university, as the death toll soars.
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Sri Lanka’s defence minister says one of the perpetrators behind the Easter Sunday massacre studied at an Australian university as the death toll from the bombings soars.
Ruwan Wijewardene said one of the bombers studied in the UK and then Australia.
It came as police said the death toll soared to 359.
The additional deaths were the result of the wounded dying of their injuries. At least 500 people were injured in the attacks.
Sri Lankan police confirmed there were nine suicide bombers, with eight already identified. One was a woman.
Mr Wijewardene said many of the suspects were “well educated and come from upper middle class and so they are financially independent”.
“That’s a worrying factor in this because some of them have studied in various other countries,” Wijewardene told reporters.
The US Embassy in Sri Lanka says the FBI is on the ground in the country to help assist its investigation.
Sri Lanka’s government pointed the finger at the little-known local Islamist group National Thowheeth Jama’ath, but saying the group likely had “international” help.
“Certainly the security apparatus is of the view that there are foreign links and some of the evidence points to that,” Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told media.
“We’ve been following up on this claim, there were suspicions that there were links with ISIS,” he said.
Sri Lankan police carried out fresh raids, detained 18 more people in their hunt for those involved in the attacks.
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Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara also said Wednesday morning that 18 suspects were arrested overnight, raising the total detained to 58.
The prime minister warned on Tuesday that several suspects armed with explosives were still at large.
The sickening rise in the death toll comes as chilling footage shows a sick suicide bomber patting a little girl’s head before “calmly” walking into St Sebastian’s Church and killing 67 innocent worshippers.
The clip, which Indian channel TV 9 claims shows the attacker, features a man wearing a large backpack as he enters St Sebastian’s Church.
It is believed the video shows the terrorist touching survivor Dilip Fernando’s granddaughter.
Dilip said yesterday: “At the end of the mass [my family] saw one young man go into the church in with a heavy bag. He touched my granddaughter’s head on the way past. It was the bomber.”
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On Tuesday, Sri Lanka’s defence minister said the attacks on churches and luxury hotels were in retaliation for the Christchurch mosque shootings.
Sri Lanka’s state minister of defence Ruwan Wijewardene told parliament the early findings of the ongoing probe found that the suicide bombings were committed in revenge for the Christchurch shootings at two mosques, allegedly carried out by accused Australian gunman Brenton Tarrant.
Fifty Muslim worshippers died in the horrific New Zealand attacks on March 15.
The death toll from the Sri Lanka terror attacks on churches and luxury hotels has risen to 321, with 500 injured. Islamic State is believed to be behind a video claiming responsibility for the deadly massacre.
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Bomber queued for breakfast before blast
BROTHERS ‘CARRIED OUT HOTEL BOMBINGS’
Police sources told AFP on Tuesday that two Muslim brothers — sons of a wealthy Colombo spice trader — were among the perpetrators of the attacks.
They blew themselves up as guests queued for breakfast at the Shangri-La and Cinnamon Grand hotels in the capital, the source said.
The pair were key members of the NTJ, which the government has previously blamed for defacing Buddhist statues, according to an investigation officer.
An attack on a fourth hotel failed and helped lead police to the Islamist group now blamed for the assault, they added.
The brothers, whose names have not been revealed, were in their late twenties and operated their own “family cell”, an investigation officer said.
Tuesday’s claim by IS comes one month after a Kurdish-led Syrian force announced victory over the IS proto-state, after routing jihadists from their last holdout in east Syria with backing from a US-led coalition.
Even after losing their last scrap of territory in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz, the jihadists retain a global network of recruits and have claimed attacks in Iraq, Syria and beyond.
On Sunday, IS claimed responsibility for an attack that killed 10 people and trapped around 2,000 for hours inside the communications ministry in the Afghan capital Kabul the previous day.
PM PAYS TRIBUTE
In Darwin, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has paid his respects to those killed in the attacks, including Melbourne mother and daughter Manik and Alexandria Suriaaratchi, at a special prayer service.
Mr Morrison attended the Sri Lanka-Australia Friendship Association’s Remembrance Prayers at the International Buddhist Centre in Darwin.
Earlier, he confirmed that the Australian Federal Police would be joining Sri Lanka’s investigation effort.
“AFP and our people are now joining the investigation efforts,” he said.
“We’ve made those offers and they’ve been responded to and so we’ll be assisting wherever we can with these investigations.”
A state of emergency was imposed on the country, giving the police and the military special powers to counter militant strikes.
It also means suspects can be detained without a court order.
Earlier on Tuesday, an Arabic-language video reportedly showed the suspected leader of the National Thowheed Jamaath, Moulvi Zahran Hashim, pledging allegiance to the so-called Islamic State.
There has been no official confirmation as to whether the video is genuine. It was not posted on an official IS media channel, but rather, one believed to be run by supporters of the terrorist group.
The video also depicts several people believed to be the suicide bombers connected to the attack, but who are referred to as “assailants” rather than much-used IS term, “martyrs”.
‘REVENGE’ FOR CHRISTCHURCH SHOOTINGS
Wijewardene told Parliament the government possessed information that the bombings were carried out “by an Islamic fundamentalist group” in response to the Christchurch attacks. He also blamed “weakness” within Sri Lanka’s security apparatus for failing to prevent the nine bombings.
“By now it has been established that the intelligence units were aware of this attack and a group of responsible people were informed about the impending attack,” he said. “However, this information has been circulated among only a few officials.”
The office of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern issued a statement responding to the Christchurch claim that described Sri Lanka’s investigation as “in its early stages.” “New Zealand has not yet seen any intelligence upon which such an assessment might be based,” it said.
As Sri Lanka’s leaders wrangled with the implications of an apparent militant attack and massive intelligence failure, security was heightened for a national day of mourning and the military was employing powers to make arrests it last used during a devastating civil war that ended in 2009.
The six near-simultaneous attacks was Sri Lanka’s deadliest violence in a decade.
Word from international intelligence agencies that a local group was planning attacks apparently didn’t reach the prime minister’s office until after the massacre, exposing the continuing political turmoil in the highest levels of the Sri Lankan government.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he feared the massacre could unleash instability and he vowed to “vest all necessary powers with the defense forces” to act against those who were responsible.
Authorities said they knew where the group trained and had safe houses, but did not identify any of the seven suicide bombers, whose bodies were recovered, or the other suspects taken into custody.
All seven bombers were Sri Lankans, but authorities said they strongly suspected foreign links.
Originally published as Easter massacre: Sri Lankan bomber ‘studied in Australia’
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