Sri Lanka attacks carried out by Islamist group National Thowheed Jamath, minister says

A group of domestic Islamic extremists were responsible for the Easter Sunday suicide bombings in Sri Lanka, the country's government has said.

The seven suicide bombers were all Sri Lankan citizens belonging to National Thowfeek Jamath, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne revealed at a news conference on Monday.

The group is believed to have links with foreign terrorist networks.

Officials said the causes of three later bombings on Sunday are still being investigated.

Sri Lankan military stand guard inside a church after an explosion in Negombo, Sri Lanka (REUTERS)
Reuters

A total of nine bombings on Sunday killed at least 290 people. About 500 others were wounded in the blasts. Officials said 24 suspects were in custody for questioning.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but 24 people have been arrested in a series of police raids.

Following the tragedy, Telecommunications Minister Harin Fernando tweeted: "Some intelligence officers were aware of this incidence. Therefore there was a delay in action. Serious action needs to be taken as to why this warning was ignored."

Relatives of victims after bomb blasts ripped through churches and luxury hotels on Easter
REUTERS

Mano Ganeshan, the minister for national integration, said the security officers within his ministry had been warned by their division about the possibility two suicide bombers would target politicians.

Sri Lankan government forensic crime analyst said Ariyananda Welianga said two people were involved in the attack at the Shangri-La hotel. One bomber each attacked the Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury hotels, and St Anthony's Shrine in Colombo, St Sebastian's church in the city of Negombo and Zion Church in the city of Batticaloa.

Two bombings hours later at a guesthouse and near an overpass on the outskirts of Colombo are still being investigated. Suspects detonated explosives at a safe house near the overpass blast, killing three officers.

The explosions, mostly in or around the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, collapsed ceilings and blew out windows, killing worshippers and hotel guests.

Most of those killed were Sri Lankans and the country's foreign ministry said the bodies of at least 27 foreigners from countries including Britain, the US, China, Japan, Portugal, Denmark and Australia also died.

The Sri Lankan government lifted a curfew that had been imposed during the night but most social media remained blocked on Monday after officials said they needed to curtail the spread of false information and ease tension in the country.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT