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Sri Lanka’s president has sacked the national intelligence chief and will not cooperate with a parliamentary investigation into security lapses before the Easter suicide bombings, officials said yesterday. Maithripala Sirisena summoned an emergency cabinet meeting on Friday night to oppose a parliamentary select committee probe into the April 21 attacks that killed 258 people, including 45 foreigners, and wounded nearly 500. Chief of National Intelligence Sisira Mendis was sacked after testifying to the inquiry last week that the attacks could have been averted. He also said the president had failed to hold regular security meetings to assess the threat from radicals who carried out the bombings on three hotels and three churchs.  Sirisena’s office did not give a reason for the sacking. Halfway through the testimony, the live telecast of the proceedings was stopped on the president’s orders, official sources said. A ministerial source told AFP Sirisena has refused to allow any police, military or intelligence personnel to testify before the committee. The source added that the heated cabinet meeting ended “inconclusively” without taking a decision on whether to suspend the parliament probe. Sirisena’s office did not comment on the meeting, but said the president had told senior police officers on Friday that he will not allow any serving officer to testify. Sirisena’s defence secretary and police chief have suggested that the president, who is also defence minister, did not follow proper protocols in dealing with intelligence warnings about the Easter Sunday bombings. Sirisena has repeatedly denied he was aware of an impending threat.  A local jihadist organisation and the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks. The country has been under a state of emergency since the bombings. Sirisena said last week that he met with the national police chief and his top brass 13 days before the attacks but no officer raised warnings passed on by India and based on information from a detained jihadist. The crisis erupted ahead of a visit to Sri Lanka by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi today. The Indian premier is to make a brief stopover in Colombo on his return from an official visit to the Maldives yesterday. The Sri Lankan government has admitted there were intelligence failures before the attacks. Sirisena suspended police chief Pujith Jayasundara and dismissed his top defence official Hemasiri Fernando after the bombings.

Sri Lanka’s suspended police chief has petitioned the Supreme Court, accusing President Maithripala Sirisena of failing to prevent the Easter bombings that killed 258 people. In a 20-page complaint, Inspector General Pujith Jayasundara disclosed serious communication gaps between intelligence agencies and security arms of the government, all which fall under Sirisena. In the petition submitted to court last week and seen by AFP yesterday, Jayasundara said the country’s premier spy agency, the State Intelligence Service (SIS), ordered him last year to stop ongoing police investigations into militants. The SIS, which reports directly to Sirisena, wanted the police Terrorist Investigation Department to stop all inquiries into extremist factions, including the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), which was blamed for the Easter Sunday bombings. Jayasundara said the head of the SIS, Nilantha Jayawardena, did not take seriously the intelligence shared by neighbouring India which warned of an impending attack by the NTJ. Jayasundara said despite the SIS not sharing information warnings with the police department, he had initiated action to alert his senior men, but he had no input from the main spy agency. Sirisena suspended Jayasundara after he refused to accept responsibility for the deadly attacks. The attorney general has asked for a full bench of the apex court to decide the case. Jayasundara said he was offered a diplomatic post if he took the fall and stepped down, but he refused as he said he was not responsible for the catastrophic intelligence failure. He said he had been sidelined by the president since a political rift between president and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe emerged in October. Jayasundara’s petition came days after Sirisena publicly rebuked another intelligence official, Sisira Mendis, after he told a parliamentary panel that the Easter suicide bombings could have been avoided. Mendis’s testimony appeared to put Sirisena in a poor light by implying he had not held National Security Council meetings to review threats such as the attacks carried out by Islamic State. In a statement, Sirisena denied claims by Mendis that the country’s highest security body had not met as often as it should have around the time of the attacks, which were blamed on Islamic State-backed militants. Sirisena, who is also defence minister, said in a statement he held NSC meetings twice a week, contradicting Mendis who told parliament the last meeting was on February 19, more than two months before the April 21 bombings targeting three churches and three luxury hotels. Sirisena said he met with the national police chief and his top brass 13 days before the Easter Sunday attacks and no officer raised warnings which had been relayed by India. Sri Lanka has been under a state of emergency since the attacks, but Sirisena announced last week that it will end in a month.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said yesterday that he had not decided on seeking another term in an election that is due by year-end. “I am not in a hurry to decide whether to stand,” Sirisena told a news conference in New Delhi, a day after attending Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony. Sirisena has faced criticism over his leadership after a string of deadly suicide bombings killed more than 250 people in the island nation on April 21. Indian Prime Minister Modi yesterday held a bilateral meeting with President Sirisena. In the first of a series of bilateral meetings with foreign leaders, Modi and Sirisena discussed issues of interest of the two countries at Hyderabad House in New Delhi. “Hitting the ground running! In the first of a series of bilateral meetings with foreign leaders lined up today, PM @narendramodi had a warm meeting with the President of #SriLanka @MaithripalaS at Hyderabad House. Discussed bilateral issues of interest,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

Sri Lanka’s president extended yesterday by a further month the state of emergency imposed immediately after the Easter Sunday bombings that killed 258 people. Maithripala Sirisena issued a proclamation saying that the emergency, which gives sweeping powers to security forces to arrest and detain suspects for long periods of time, would continue for another 30 days, citing “public security”. Sri Lanka initially imposed the emergency to crack down on local jihadists blamed for the April 21 bombings that targeted three churches and three luxury  hotels. Three weeks after the suicide bombings, anti-Muslim riots broke out in a province north of the capital in a backlash against the attacks. At least one Muslim man was killed and hundreds of Muslim-owned shops and homes were destroyed. Several mosques were also vandalised. The police and the military say they have arrested scores of suspects, both in connection with the bombings and over what appeared to be organised violence against the Muslim minority. The authorities say they have neutralised the jihadist threat after arresting almost all those involved in the Easter attacks, but troops and police  remain on alert across the island. Christians make up 7.6% and Muslims 10% of mainly  Buddhist Sri Lanka. FAKE NEWS RAMPANT: Sri Lankan social networks saw a surge in fake news after the Easter suicide bombings a month ago despite an official social media blackout, highlighting the inability of governments to contain disinformation, experts said. A nine-day ban on platforms including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp was introduced following the Islamic State-claimed attacks on churches and hotels on April 21. Many anxious social media users switched to virtual private networks (VPNs) or the TOR network to bypass the order and keep communication open with friends and relatives as the extent of the carnage became clear. But for others, the tools were a means to spread confusion and vitriol as the island struggled to come to terms with one of the worst terror attacks in its  history. Sanjana Hattotuwa, who monitors social media for fake news at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, said the government blackout had failed to prevent “engagement, production, sharing and discussion of Facebook content”, and that he had seen a significant increase in false reports. AFP has published half a dozen fact-checks debunking false claims made on Facebook and Twitter after the Easter attacks. Some had dug out photos of coffins and funerals from Sri Lanka’s brutal decades-long civil war and claimed they showed victims of the blasts. One video posted to Facebook showed police arresting a man dressed in a burqa and claimed he was involved in the bombings. The video was actually from 2018, and showed a man who had used a burqa to hide his identity while he sought to attack someone over a debt issue. Another used a five-year-old photo from India that showed a group of men wearing T-shirts with “ISIS”, another name for Islamic State, written on them to claim there was an active IS cell in eastern Sri Lanka. One Twitter user claiming to be a high-ranking Sri Lankan army brigadier used the platform to accuse neighbouring India of being involved in the attacks. The account was later taken down by Twitter after the Sri Lankan army complained. Authorities in Sri Lanka – where ethnic divisions still linger after decades of war – previously blocked Facebook in March 2018 after Buddhist hardliners used incendiary posts to fan religious violence that left three people dead and reduced several hundred homes and shops to ashes. The surge in fake news has further blemished the troubled reputation of social media – which several years ago had been seen as a means to expand freedom of information – in the region. Since the attacks, Sri Lankan authorities have imposed other short bans on social media, including earlier this month after mobs in the northwestern town of Chilaw attacked Muslim-owned businesses in anger at a Facebook post by a shopkeeper.

Sri Lanka’s president marked the 10th anniversary of the end of a protracted war with Tamil rebels yesterday by vowing to crush religious militants responsible for Easter bombings that killed 258 people. Maithripala Sirisena said Sri Lankan security forces and intelligence units could use their experience in defeating separatist Tamil guerrillas a decade ago to meet the new challenge from religious extremists. The government has blamed a local jihadist group for the April 21 attacks against three churches and three luxury hotels that also left 500 injured and shattered a fragile decade-long peace in the island of 21mn people. “With experience from a war that lasted over three decades, we are now compelled to meet a completely different threat,” Sirisena told a commemoration ceremony. “We have been able to arrest all those who were behind the Easter attacks. Some have been killed in confrontations,” he said. “This gives me confidence that we can completely eliminate the threat from international terrorism.” Muslims account for 10% of the population in the mainly Buddhist nation, which has been under a state of emergency since the attacks that were also claimed by the Islamic State group. Army chief Mahesh Senanayake said the military was paying tribute to around 28,000 soldiers who died in the war that ended on May 18, 2009 with the killing of Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. Some 5,000 government troops and police are also listed as missing since the end of the insurgency. Sri Lankan forces have been accused of killing about 40,000 Tamil civilians in the final months of the conflict, a charge successive governments have denied. Nearly 16,000 others are also reported missing, according to the newly established Office of Missing Persons.  The official remembrance ceremonies in Colombo took place a day after members of the 2.5mn-strong Tamil community mourned their war dead in the northeastern coastal district of Mullaittivu where the rebels mounted their unsuccessful last stand. Hundreds of Tamils gathered at a public park on Saturday to light lamps and offer flowers before a makeshift memorial showing photographs of hundreds of men and women who went missing, in many cases after being captured or surrendering to troops.

Sri Lanka’s army yesterday denied allegations that its troops colluded with anti-Muslim mobs and failed to contain widespread riots that killed one man in a backlash against the Easter terror attacks.   Army chief Mahesh Senanayake said CCTV footage of troops allegedly signalling a mob to attack a home in the latest wave of rioting did not show his soldiers committing any wrongdoing.  “We looked at footage from three cameras and found that there was no conniving of troops with the rioters,” Senanayake told reporters in Colombo. “If there was any, I would not hesitate to take action.”  He said the mobs included a lot of young men who were drunk. However, he did not say where the controversial CCTV footage came from.   He added that soldiers had initially been outnumbered against hundreds of men armed with sticks and petrol bombs who attacked Muslim-owned businesses, homes and mosques. The military has stepped up its presence in the worst affected North-Western Province to prevent a repeat of the violence, Senanayake said.  Some 5,500 additional police have also been deployed in the province. Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said the government decided not to impose further night curfews yesterday because there had been no reports of violence around the country in the past 24 hours. “We are continuing search operations to arrest those responsible for the riots,” he added.  Police said they had detained at least 112 suspects by Wednesday evening and more arrests were being carried out to ensure there was no repetition of the riots.  Colombo-based ambassadors of European nations expressed concern over the communal violence and urged the authorities to ensure that all communities were protected.  “We welcome the arrests made in connection with the violence, and call on the government to ensure that the rule of law is upheld and that the law is applied equally to all instigators and perpetrators of communal violence,” a joint statement by the diplomats said.  A shopkeeper in Minuwangoda, one of the worst affected towns just north of Colombo, said roads were reopened yesterday amid a heavy military and police presence. “I normally have about 30 customers in the morning, but today there were just three,” the electronic goods seller told AFP by telephone. “Banks have opened, but it will take a few weeks before we get back to our normal routine.”  There were similar reports from other riot-scarred towns. The Easter Sunday attacks on churches and upscale hotels claimed 258 lives and were blamed on local militants who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. Muslims in Sri Lanka have been bracing for reprisals since the Easter bombings. A state of emergency has been in place since the attacks and security forces have been given sweeping powers to detain suspects.  Sri Lanka has also blocked access to social media platforms to prevent what it called the spread of rumours that incited violence.

Sri Lanka’s police arrested over 100 suspects and re-imposed night curfews in violence-prone areas yesterday after anti-Muslim riots left one man dead and caused extensive damage to homes, businesses and mosques. Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said 78 people arrested in the worst-affected North-Western Province (NWP) were remanded in custody yesterday, while the rest were detained  after a manhunt in other areas. Some 5,500 additional police were deployed in NWP to contain the violence that claimed the life of a Muslim man on Monday. Scores of private homes, Muslim-owned shops and businesses were destroyed, while several mosques were also vandalised. Muslims in Sri Lanka have been bracing for revenge attacks since three churches and three luxury hotels were bombed by local Islamist extremists on April 21, killing 258 people. Gunasekera said a night curfew was being re-imposed in NWP, just north of the capital, as well as the adjoining Gampaha district, which shares a border with Colombo, as a measure to “maintain peace”. However, a top police source said there will be no curfews elsewhere in the country. The entire country was under night curfews for two straight days  after the violence escalated. The night curfew on Tuesday ensured there was no repeat of Monday’s violence against Muslims, who make up some 10% of Sri Lanka’s population of 21mn. “The situation is now totally under control,” said military spokesman Sumith Atapattu. “There were no incidents of violence overnight and we are arresting groups of people responsible for taking part in mob attacks.” Official sources said police deployed special teams to review CCTV camera footage to identify the perpetrators and carry out more arrests. More police and army units were seen deployed in the troubled areas as the authorities lifted the nationwide curfew yesterday morning. But Muslims in NWP remained nervous and stayed indoors yesterday, after sword-wielding rioters killed one man late Monday while vandalising scores of shops and mosques. In Bingiriya, where some 2,000 people went on the rampage, Muslim cleric M I M Siddeeque said the community was worried. “Our people are still afraid to go out,” he told AFP by  telephone. Government spokesman Navin Dissanayake said the authorities had identified the leaders of the mobs and they were already in police custody. Despite the extraordinary security measures, the minorities felt insecure, said Dissanayake, who is also a government  minister. “People feel insecure and I acknowledge that,” Dissanayake told reporters in Colombo. “We have given the armed forces of this country... a complete free hand to tackle the security situation.” Among those detained was Amith Weerasinghe, a man from Sri Lanka’s majority Buddhist Sinhalese community and on bail for his role in similar riots in March last year in the central Kandy district. Another was identified as Namal Kumara, a deserter from both the army and the air force. The police, meanwhile, also made several changes in the command structure by removing senior officers in the troubled areas after allegations officials did nothing to stop the rioters. The military released CCTV which showed a man in uniform apparently standing by while a mob pelted stones at a home, and sought public help to  identify the individual. Parliamentary Speaker Karu Jayasuriya condemned the violence and appealed for calm. “The attacks on mosques, the burning of houses and shops, the attacks on innocent people cannot be condoned in any way,” Jayasuriya said in a statement. The attacks came during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan. A state of emergency has been in place since the Easter bombings and security forces have been given sweeping powers to detain suspects. Internet service providers said the telecoms regulator on Tuesday extended a social media ban to Twitter. Earlier, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and Instagram had been blocked to prevent the spread of messages inciting  violence.

Sri Lankan soldiers in armoured vehicles yesterday patrolled towns hit by sectarian violence this week as residents recalled how Muslims had hid in paddy fields to escape mobs attacking their homes and shops. Authorities said the situation in the worst-affected northwestern parts of the Indian Ocean island nation was under control after anti-Muslim mobs appeared to have moved from town to town starting on  Sunday. A man was stabbed to death and crowds attacked mosques and burned Qur’ans in violence targeting Muslims for the Easter bombings that killed more than 250 people in churches and  hotels, mostly in Colombo. “The Muslim community huddled in nearby paddy fields, that’s how no one died,” said one of a group of men gathered outside a white-and-green mosque with smashed windows and doors in the town of  Kottampitiya. A group of about a dozen people had arrived in taxis and attacked Muslim-owned stores with stones just after midday on Monday, they said, with the mob soon swelling to 200, and  then 1,000. Besides the main mosque, the mob attacked 17 Muslim-owned businesses and 50 homes,  witnesses said. Abdul Bari, 48, said his small brick shop had been burned down with a petrol bomb. “The attackers were on motorbikes, armed with rods and swords,” he added. Others blamed the police for failing to disperse the crowd. “The police were watching. They were in the street, they didn’t stop anything. They told us to go inside,” said Mohamed Faleel, 47, who runs a car paint business. “We asked police, we said stop them. They didn’t fire. They had to stop this, but they didn’t,” he added. Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera rejected allegations that police had stood by while the violence unfolded. He said the security situation was under control and the perpetrators would be punished. “All police officers have been instructed to take stern action against the violators, even to use the maximum force. Perpetrators could face up to a 10-year jail term,” Gunasekera said. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said late on Monday he had given powers to the security forces to take strong action against those responsible for anti-Muslim violence. Muslims form nearly 10% of Sri Lanka’s 22mn people who are predominantly Sinhalese Buddhists, with a sprinkling of minority Hindus and Christians. Most Muslims are concentrated in the east, with scattered  pockets in the west.

Sri Lanka imposed a nationwide night curfew yesterday, after anti-Muslim riots spread to three districts just north of the capital in a violent new backlash against the Easter suicide bombings.   Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the curfew was declared to prevent unidentified groups destabilising the country by orchestrating communal violence. “At several places in the North-Western Province these groups created trouble, damaged property,” Wickremesinghe said in a televised address to the nation.   “Police and security forces have contained the situation, but these (unidentified) groups are still trying to create trouble.” Wickremesinghe said the unrest would hinder investigations into the April 21 attacks that targeted three Christian churches and three luxury hotels, killing 258 people and wounding nearly 500.  Residents in the North-Western Province were ordered to stay indoors after Christian-led mobs torched dozens of Muslim-owned shops, vehicles and mosques on Sunday and Monday.   The attacks came during the holy fasting month of Ramadan. Later the curfew was extended to cover the entire country of 21mn people.  Police said the curfew will be lifted at 6am today in violence-hit areas, while in the rest of the country it would be relaxed two hours earlier at 4am. Police said there were sporadic incidents of mobs pelting stones and torching shops, motorcycles and cars owned by Muslims. In the town of Hettipola, at least three shops were torched.  In the town of Minuwangoda, just north of Colombo, a Muslim-owned hotel and a mosque were attacked by stone-pelting mobs armed with sticks. “Several shops have been attacked,” a senior police officer told AFP. “When mobs tried to attack mosques, we fired in the air and used tear gas to disperse them.” “There is a strong political element to the riots today. There are people trying to make political capital out of this situation.” There were no immediate reports of casualties or arrests, police said.  Earlier, authorities banned Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media platforms after overnight riots gripped several towns in the troubled region. Platforms were similarly blocked after the Easter attacks. In a statement issued earlier in the day, the prime minister urged the public not to believe rumours and warned that civil unrest will stretch the already thinly deployed security forces.  “I appeal to all citizens to remain calm and not be swayed by false information,” Wickremesinghe said on Twitter, which was not targeted in the social media blockade. A state of emergency has been in place since the bombings – which the Islamic State group claims to have helped – and security forces have been given sweeping powers to detain suspects. The latest wave of unrest started on Sunday when a mob targeted Muslim-owned shops in the town of Chilaw, 80km north of Colombo on Sunday in anger at a Facebook post by a shopkeeper.   “Don’t laugh more, 1 day u will cry,” he wrote, which local Christians took to be a warning of an impending attack. The group smashed the man’s shop and vandalised a nearby mosque prompting security forces to fire in the air to disperse the crowd, but the violence spread. There had already been clashes last week between Christians and Muslims in Negombo, the town north of Colombo that was targeted by the suicide attackers.  The main body of Islamic clerics, the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU), said there was increased suspicion of Muslims after the Easter Sunday attacks. “We call upon the members of the Muslim communities to be more patient and guard your actions and avoid unnecessary postings or hosting on social media,” the ACJU said. Internet service providers said they have been instructed by the telecommunications regulator to block access to Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and Instagram. The latest unrest came as Catholic churches resumed public Sunday masses for the first time since the bombings. Dozens of people have been detained since the Easter attacks, and with security heightened students are only allowed into schools after checks for explosives. But attendance has been extremely low, according to education authorities.  Muslims make up around 10% of Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka’s population and Christians about 7.6%.

 Father Suranga Warnakulasuriya said prayers alone in his church Sunday, as Catholic services were suspended across Sri Lanka for the second straight week since the Easter suicide attacks. With the army staging raids across the country and authorities maintaining high levels of security, the country's 1.25 million Christians are still on edge after jihadist bombers killed 257 people. Warnakulasuriya has been saying mass in an empty church in Negombo, just north of the capital, every day since the slaughter at three hotels and three churches, one not far from his.  "Sometimes we feel lonely by not being able to celebrate the mass together," admitted the fresh-faced 32-year-old who only became a priest in 2015. With churches closed, the country's Catholics had to make do Sunday with a second televised mass by the Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith. A few people went to St Anthony's Shrine in Colombo to say prayers in front of a barrier set up in front of the church where dozens died on April 21. But the faithful are frustrated. "It's not enough because we cannot receive the eucharist through television, that's the important thing," said Shehani Rangana, 33, whose father was among the dead at St Sebastian's church in Negombo. Since the bombings, Catholics -- shaken by physical and psychological scars from the jihadist attacks -- have been organising their own services and solidarity groups. Sometimes Warnakulasuriya and other priests say prayers in the homes of parishioners. Rangana put up a cross of dried leaves at the door of her home for one service. Warnakulasuriya said he goes to up to 20 homes each day to celebrate communion.  "They share their views on this attack," he said. "Sometimes they have hatred feelings, so we try to control them, to persuade them not to have revenge. We try to calm them by saying that Jesus is not hatred but love." Around St Sebastian's Church, ravaged by a suicide bomber who killed 102 people, nearly all the houses have white flags, the colour of mourning.  The bigger pennants are a sign that someone from the house died in the massacre. The local cemetery did not have enough room to bury all the dead and one local resident offered land so that victims could be buried together. Two nuns watched a nine-year-old girl, Nethudini, as she sat on a chair in one of the houses drawing with an art kit offered by a local family. The young girl's mother died in the Negombo attack on April 21. Nethudini survived with injuries but has barely spoken nor cried since. She drew a picture of St Sebastian's in blood red. The Catholic leadership has assigned a support team of a priest, two nuns and two volunteers for many of the families that were torn apart by the bombers. Father George Anthony Fernando is leading the team watching over Nethudini and her family. "Depending on their requirements, counselling will take the time needed. I might come two or three times per week to visit them. I have been assigned only this one family," said Fernando. The priest said that the contact with the family was even more important as "life has slowed down" with no services being held and the Christian community is in fear. Public schools will only reopen on Monday after an Easter break was extended because of the bombings. Security forces will be on duty around schools in a sign of the charged atmosphere. Every night at St Sebastian's, as soon as night falls, the church becomes out of bounds and is surrounded by armed soldiers. But local families still come out every evening to light oil lamps and candles on the outside church wall. With their eyes closed tight, they say a short prayer before silently walking away.

Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena said on Saturday the security forces would ‘eradicate terrorism’ following devastating suicide attacks on Easter Sunday and restore stability before a presidential election due by year-end. Sirisena also said in an interview he believed Islamic State was behind the April 21 attacks, which targeted churches and luxury hotels and killed more than 250 people including 42 foreign nationals. The group has claimed responsibility. ‘Elections cannot be postponed, therefore before the elections I will bring about stability and I will eradicate terrorism,’ Sirisena told Reuters. The elections are likely to take place between Nov. 10 and Dec. 10. ‘We have already identified all active members of the group and it's a case of now arresting them,’ Sirisena said, adding that there were a further 25 to 30 ‘active members’ linked to the bombings still at large. Sirisena said that all indications suggested Islamic State had been involved, adding: ‘It's crystal clear because after the attacks the IS organisation made an announcement claiming responsibility for the bombings.’ Sri Lanka authorities have previously said that they suspect the attackers had international links, although the precise nature of those connections is not known. Police have said they are also investigating the possible involvement of two previously little-known groups - National Thawheedh Jamaath and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim. Sirisena said that intelligence services from eight countries, including the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Interpol, were helping Sri Lanka with the investigation. Local intelligence officials believe that Zahran Hashim, a radical Tamil-speaking preacher from the east of the Indian Ocean island nation, may have been a key player in plotting the Easter bombings. Officials believe he was one of nine suicide bombers.

Sri Lanka bolstered security yesterday with fears of attacks against bridges in the capital as the prime minister vowed to hunt down any remaining Islamic State extremists behind the deadly Easter bombings. Sri Lanka’s minority Muslims, meanwhile, held Friday prayers under tight security, condemning the jihadist attacks that killed 257 people on April 21. Extremists were believed to be planning further attacks, authorities said, this time against several bridges and flyovers in the city as well as police  stations. The warnings came as Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said some of the conspirators in the April 21 bombings of three hotels and three luxury hotels may still be at large. “Most of those responsible for the Easter attacks have been arrested. Some have been killed,” Wickremesinghe said yesterday during a tour of island’s east, where a church was hit. “We are trying to see if there are any more secret IS cells in the country,” he said. “We will ensure that IS terrorism will be eradicated from our land.” He hoped normality would return by Monday when public schools reopen after an extended Easter vacation. About 50 children  were among those killed. As Muslims held prayers, mosque leaders said donations they received will be diverted to help rebuild the three churches. At Colombo’s Dewatagaha Jumma mosque, hundreds of Muslims prayed after being frisked by police for explosives. Vehicles were not allowed to be parked near the Sufi mosque. Banners in front of the mosque condemned the atrocities and expressed solidarity with Christians. One of the banners offered the mosque for Christians to conduct their services. “The situation has come to normal but not completely,” chairman of the mosque, Reyyaz M Salley, said. “People are still scared. Non-Muslims and Muslims are in a very tense situation.” Police confirmed they had instructed stations around Colombo to deploy additional officers and asked the navy to deploy more vessels on rivers following the leak of police intelligence warning bridges were at risk of attack. Sri Lanka’s military has also set up a special command centre to co-ordinate anti-jihadist operations, while the army said more troops have been deployed for search operations. Additional troops conducted searches overnight and seized explosives and weapons from several locations, although these were from criminal groups and not jihadists, official sources said. Authorities had information about a small group of radicals who may be trying to stage more strikes, said health minister and government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne. He said the crackdown on extremists after the Easter bombings had been largely successful. “You can’t say the threat is over, but the situation is well under control... better than what we expected.” But the government was also still on the hunt for “four terrorists” involved in the Easter attacks who were still at large, Senaratne said in an interview on Thursday evening. The Catholic Church announced Thursday that they had called off the resumption of Sunday services following information of a “specific threat” against two of their locations just outside the capital. Catholic schools will not follow public schools in reopening on Monday, the Church said on Thursday. Sri Lankan authorities have admitted that there was a failure to act on advance intelligence warnings of the deadly Easter Sunday attacks against churches and luxury hotels. Senaratne said the country’s Muslim community had helped authorities root out extremists in the weeks since Easter. “Everyone is giving information. They come forward to give a lot of information,” he said. Sri Lanka was also receiving international help, with foreign intelligence services working alongside their local counterparts, Senaratne added. “We have already received foreign assistance from the US, UK and from India. There are other countries also which have offered intelligence services,” he said. Soon after the attacks, President Maithripala Sirisena said he believed there were 140 IS-inspired jihadists in Sri Lanka and he had ordered security forces to track them down. The Easter attacks were blamed on the local National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) whose leader was among the suicide bombers. The group had pledged an oath of allegiance to the Islamic State group.

Sri Lanka stepped up security yesterday as political parties staged low-key May Day commemorations after calling off scheduled rallies following fears of Islamist bomb attacks. Officials said more police were deployed for cordon-and-search operations in many parts of the country, while the military also reinforced road blocks and patrols. Several roads in the capital were closed yesterday as President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe attended a tightly guarded public ceremony marking the 26th anniversary of president Ranasinghe  Premadasa assassination. Officials said police used extraordinary security measures for Sirisena’s public appearance to commemorate Premadasa, who was killed by a suicide bomber during a May Day rally in 1993. “His security used three identical convoys to bring the president to the commemoration,” a police official at the function said. “This was to make sure that no-one has advance warning about the  vehicles used by the president.” Sirisena’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) cancelled its May Day celebrations and instead was holding a closed-door meeting with senior stalwarts later in the day,  officials said. The country has been under a state of emergency since Easter Sunday attacks killed 253 people at three churches and three luxury hotels. The emergency gives sweeping powers to police and the military to arrest and detain suspects for long periods. Police say they have arrested over 150 people suspected of links to jihadists who carried out the bombings. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said Tuesday that some suspects remained at large. “A few more people involved in the attacks are out there and we hope to arrest them soon,” Wickremesinghe said. “Even if we arrest all of them, the threat will not disappear.” He said Sri Lanka will have to work closely with international partners to neutralise the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the audacious bombings – the worst single-day attack against civilians on the island. Sri Lanka blamed the local National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) for the bombings. The group had pledged an oath of allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who in a recent audio message praised the  Sri Lanka attacks. Schools were due to open on Monday, but authorities put it off by a week.  Police yesterday named nine people who staged Easter Sunday suicide bombings that killed 253 people, and said the attackers’ assets will be confiscated in line with anti-terror laws. Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera confirmed that two of the luxury hotels were bombed by two brothers from a wealthy Colombo family involved in spice exports. The group of militants had used one bomber at each of the locations hit on Easter Sunday, except at Shangri-La hotel where there were two suicide explosions.  One of the Shangri-La bombers was Zahran Hashim, the leader of the local jihadist group responsible for the audacious attacks that were claimed by the Islamic State group. Hashim headed the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) which has since been banned. He attacked the Shangri-La in the company of Ilham Ahmed Mohamed Ibrahim. Ilham’s elder brother Inshaf Ahmed was the man who bombed the nearby Cinnamon Grand hotel. The third hotel to be targeted, the Kingsbury, was bombed by a man identified as Mohamed Azzam Mubarak Mohamed. His wife was now in police custody, Gunasekera said. The St Anthony’s Church was targeted by a local resident named Ahmed Muaz. His brother has been arrested. The St Sebastian bomber was Mohamed Hasthun, a resident from the island’s east where Hashim was based. The church in the eastern district of Batticaloa was hit by a local resident, Mohamed Nasser Mohamed Asad. Another man who failed to set a bomb off at a deluxe hotel, but blasted his explosives at a guest house near the capital. He was identified as Abdul Latheef who had studied both in Britain and Australia. Shortly after the hotel bomb attacks, Fathima Ilham, the wife of the younger of the two brothers, blasted explosives strapped to herself, killing her two children and three police officers who rushed to the family home in Colombo.  “We are going to use prevention of terrorist financing laws to confiscate their property,” Gunasekera said.

Sri Lankan authorities have identified 42 foreign nationals among the 253 people killed in the string of Easter suicide bombings, officials said Tuesday. Another 12 foreigners remain unaccounted for and could be among still unidentified bodies at Colombo's police morgue, foreign ministry officials said. Five wounded foreigners were still in hospital after the April 21 blasts at churches and hotels claimed by the Islamic State group. A ministry statement said the highest number of victims were from India (11) followed by Britain (six), China (four) and Denmark (three). Saudi Arabia, Spain and Turkey lost two nationals each. Bangladesh, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, United States, all lost one national. There were six other people with more than one nationality. Previously authorities had said that 40 foreign nationals were killed and had not given a breakdown on their nationalities. ‘Human remains of 25 foreign nationals have been repatriated by Monday evening,’ the foreign ministry said in a statement. ‘Additionally, 12 foreign nationals are unaccounted for at present, and could be among the unidentified victims at the Colombo Judicial Medical Officer's mortuary.’ Identification of those killed at the luxury hotels was difficult because many of the bodies were badly mutilated, health authorities have said. The government has declared a state of emergency after the devastating blasts and banned two militant groups accused of responsibility for the bombings. Many tourists have left the country after the attacks and there has been a sharp decline in the number of foreigners visiting the island after several countries warned against travel to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka's finance ministry expects a 30-percent decline in tourist arrivals this year leading to a loss in revenues of about $1.5 billion.

Sri Lankan security officials have warned that militants behind Easter Sunday’s suicide bombings are planning attacks and could be dressed in uniform, as the archbishop of Colombo complained about insufficient security around churches. The militants were targeting five locations for attacks on Sunday just passed or yesterday, security sources said. “There could be another wave of attacks,” the head of the police ministerial security division (MSD) said in a letter to lawmakers and other officials seen by Reuters. “The relevant information further notes that persons dressed in military uniforms and using a van could be involved in the attacks.” Security forces searched a burial ground in Colombo yesterday following information that explosives had been hidden there, but the troops did not find any, officials said. There were no attacks on Sunday and security across Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka has been ramped up, with scores of suspected militants arrested since the April 21 attacks on hotels and churches that killed more than 250 people, including 40 foreign  nationals. The government has also banned women from wearing face veils under an emergency law that was put in place after the attacks. There were concerns within the Muslim community that the ban could fuel tensions in the multi-ethnic nation. But government officials said it would help security forces identify people as a hunt for any remaining attackers and their support network continues across the Indian Ocean island, which was gripped by civil war for decades until 2009. The Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Ranjith, said that security had not been sufficiently stepped up around churches. “We are not satisfied with the security arrangements and urge authorities to ensure our safety,” he told reporters. Authorities suspect members of two little known groups – National Thawheedh Jamaath (NTJ) and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim – of carrying out the Easter attacks, though Islamic State has claimed responsibility. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said a tight-knit group of people was involved, mostly close friends and families. They spoke face-to-face, possibly to evade electronic  surveillance. “They were small enough that they were not using normal communications, instead meeting each other,”  Wickremesinghe said. He added the co-ordinated bombings, the type of explosives used and the tightly guarded plot suggested the bombers had guidance. “IS has claimed, we also felt there has to be some international links,” he said, referring to Islamic State. Authorities believe Zahran Hashim, the founder of NTJ, was the mastermind and one of the nine suicide bombers. One military source said that five sets of white attire commonly worn by Buddhists when visiting temples were recovered from a safe house in the east, the site of a gun battle on Friday that killed Zahran’s father and his two brothers. His wife and daughter escaped an explosion with minor injuries, hospital staff and police said. Many Sri Lankans believe a deep rift between President Maithripala Sirisena and Wickremesinghe has undermined  national security. Sirisena fired Wickremesinghe last year, after months of tension, only to be forced to reinstate him under pressure from the  Supreme Court. Since then their relationship has deteriorated further to the point where their factions actively try to undermine each other, including not sharing security information, defence  sources say. The archbishop criticised the bickering at the top levels of government. “At a time when the whole country has been affected by a major catastrophe, politicians should stop finding fault with each other,” he said. Instead they must have broad discussion on what steps needed to be taken to solve this and take this country out of this crisis.” Sri Lanka’s Tourism Bureau chairman, Kishu Gomes, said tourist arrivals in Colombo were expected to fall 50% over the next two months because of the bombings. Tourist arrivals in areas elsewhere in Sri Lanka would likely go down by about 30%, he told reporters at a travel  conference in Dubai. In India, police said they had raided the homes of three people in the southern state of Kerala, close to Sri Lanka, in connection with their links to Islamic State. They did not say if there was any connection to the attacks in  Sri Lanka.

Half of a group of 120 Sri Lankan migrants who arrived on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion two weeks were deported early on Monday, officials said. The group of 60, including three women and three children, were flown back to Sri Lanka in a special flight, the island's prefecture said in a statement. The group of 120 migrants arrived at Reunion on April 13, having made the 4,000-kilometre in a fishing boat. They each paid 2,000-5,000 euros ($2,230-$5,580) for the crossing.  The fishing boat's three Indonesian crew members have been charged with assisting illegal immigration. Remanded in custody, they are scheduled to appear in court on May 15.  Since March 2018, 273 Sri Lankans have arrived on Reunion Island, of whom 130 are still there. They are waiting for OFPRA (the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons) to rule on their asylum applications.  All the others have been sent back to Sri Lanka.  "There are clearly illegal immigration networks in operation," said Frederic Joram, secretary general of Reunion Island's prefecture. 

Tourist arrivals in Colombo will fall by 50 percent over the next two months following the Easter Sunday bombings that killed more than 250 people, Sri Lanka's Tourism Bureau Chairman Kishu Gomes predicted on Monday. Tourist arrivals in areas outside Colombo are likely to fall by about 30 percent as a result of the attacks, Gomes told reporters at a travel conference in Dubai. Sri Lanka was facing lost tourism revenues of about $750 million this year, he told Reuters. SriLankan Airlines' chief executive Vipula Gunatilleka told Reuters that the carrier had a 10 percent increase in cancellations last week and expects that number to rise. A collapse in tourism following the attacks on churches and hotels would deal a severe blow to the island's economy and financial markets, and potentially force it to seek further assistance from the International Monetary Fund. Tourism was Sri Lanka's third largest and fastest growing source of foreign currency last year, after private remittances and textile and garment exports, accounting for almost $4.4 billion or 4.9 percent of gross domestic product in 2018. Gomes said the tourism bureau had targeted 2.5 million visitors in 2019. "We will probably reach about 2 million," Gomes told reporters. "We are looking at providing some concessions to the industry for them to be able to maintain their viability for the next few months." Gomes said confidence could return if the military is able to give assurances on security. "If the military can come out over the next few days and make a strong statement with respect to security that's when we will obviously offer a bit of confidence and try and work against that anticipation," the tourism chief said. 

Sri Lankan security officials have warned that militants behind Easter Sunday's suicide bombings are planning imminent attacks and could be dressed in military uniforms. The militants were targeting five locations for attacks on Sunday or Monday, security sources said. ‘There could be another wave of attacks,’ the head of ministerial security division (MSD), a unit of the police, said in a letter to lawmakers and other officials, seen by Reuters on Monday. ‘The relevant information further notes that persons dressed in military uniforms and using a van could be involved in the attacks.’ There were no attacks on Sunday, and security across Sri Lanka has been ramped up, with scores of suspected militants arrested since the April 21 attacks on hotels and churches that killed more than 250 people, including 40 foreign nationals. Two cabinet ministers and two opposition lawmakers confirmed to Reuters that they were aware of the latest security alert. ‘We have been informed about this by the MSD,’ Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said. Authorities suspect members of two little known groups - National Thawheedh Jamaath (NTJ) and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim - of carrying out the Easter attacks, though Islamic State has claimed responsibility. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said a tight-knit group of people were involved, mostly close friends and families. They mostly spoke face-to-face, possibly to evade electronic surveillance. ‘They (the group) were small enough that they were not using normal communications, instead meeting each other,’ Wickremesinghe told Reuters. He added the coordinated bombings, the type of explosives used and the tightly guarded plot suggested the bombers had guidance. ‘ISIS (Islamic State) has claimed, we also felt there has to be some international links,’ he said. President Maithripala Sirisena said on Monday he had appointed Chandana Wickramaratne, the second in command at the police, as acting police chief. Over the weekend, two sources at the president's office told Reuters that Pujith Jayasundara, the police chief during the attacks, was refusing the president's request to step down. It was not immediately possible to contact Jayasundara on Monday. In India, police said they had raided the homes of three people in the southern state of Kerala, close to Sri Lanka, in connection with their links to Islamic State. They did not say if there was any connection to the attacks in Sri Lanka.

The father and two brothers of the suspected mastermind of Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday bombings were killed when security forces stormed their safe house on the east coast two days ago, police and a relative said yesterday. Zainee Hashim, Rilwan Hashim and their father Mohamed Hashim, who appear in a video circulating on social media calling for all-out war against non-believers, were among at least 15 killed in a fierce gun battle with the military on the east coast on Friday. Kamal Jayanathdhi, the officer in charge at Kalmunai police station on the east coast, confirmed the three men had died along with a child that appears in the video, and that the undated clip in which they discuss martyrdom, had been shot in the same house where the gun battle took place. Two people who were inside the house, a woman and a seven-year-old girl believed to be relatives of the men, survived, he said, while a woman was killed in crossfire on a nearby street. Niyaz Sharif, the brother-in-law of Zahran Hashim, the suspected ringleader of the wave of Easter Sunday bombings that killed over 250 people in churches and hotels across the island nation, said the video showed Zahran’s two brothers and  father. Sri Lanka has been on high alert since the attacks on Easter Sunday, with nearly 10,000 soldiers deployed across the island to carry out searches and hunt down members of two local Islamist groups believed  to have carried out the attack. Authorities have detained more than 100 people, including foreigners from Syria and Egypt since the April 21 bombings. Yesterday, police in the eastern town of Kattankudy raided a mosque founded by Zahran which doubled up as the headquarters of his group, the National Thawheedh Jamaath (NTJ). In the video, Rilwan Hashim is seen calling for ‘jihad’ or holy war, while children cry in the background. “We will destroy these non-believers to protect this land and therefore we need to do jihad,” Rilwan says in the video, sitting beside his brother and father. “We need to teach a proper lesson for these non-believers who have been destroying  Muslims.” Rilwan, who has a damaged eye and badly disfigured hand in the video, had recently been injured while making a bomb, Jayanathdhi said. Yesterday, when Reuters visited the house, police were sifting through the wreckage, taking fingerprints and video footage. Watermelon rinds and a box of dates were still on the kitchen counter, while four pairs of children’s flip-flops were by the front door. But in the main room, where the three men filmed the video, a huge crater had punched a hole in the concrete floor, while bloodstains covered the wall. Two men had moved into the three-room rented house in the Sainthamaruthu area of Kalmunai, days before the Easter Sunday attacks, police and locals said. After more people arrived, locals grew suspicious, said Mohammed Majid, the secretary of the Grand Masjid Sainthamaruthu, one of the town’s main mosques. After evening prayers on Friday, a group of men from the local Hijra Mosque came to the house to question the occupants. When one man brandished an assault rifle, the men fled, alerting police who arrived shortly afterwards. One man was killed after running into the street with a gun to confront police, while a series of explosions came from the house,  eyewitnesses said. Authorities suspect there may be more suicide bombers on the loose. Defence authorities have so far focused their investigations on international links to two domestic groups they believe carried out the attacks, the National Thawheedh Jamaath and Jammiyathul  Millathu Ibrahim. At a nearby house where police seized more explosives and a flag of the Islamic State on Friday, locals said they feared more violence. “People were coming and going but we didn’t know their names,” said Juneedha Hasanar, who runs a shop at the bottom of the street, yards from the house. “Now we are afraid.” Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Easter bombings, and yesterday the group said three of its members clashed with Sri Lankan police for several hours in Friday’s gun battle on the east coast before detonating their explosive vests, the militant group’s news agency Amaq said. The group said 17 policemen were killed or injured in the attack, but the Sri Lankan military has denied this. A police source told Reuters two policemen were slightly injured in the battle. Police have said six children were among the other 12 people who died in the gun battle, and yesterday recovered the partial remains of a child no more than a few months old.

Sri Lanka's Roman Catholic leader on Sunday condemned the Easter attacks as ‘an insult to humanity’ as the tense and grief-stricken country marked a week since suicide bombers hit three churches and three luxury hotels. The Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, held a private mass after cancelling all public services amid fears of a repeat of the bombings that killed 253 people. A heavily-guarded vigil was held outside St Anthony's Shrine in Colombo at 8.45am, the moment the bomber struck the church last week, killing dozens of worshippers. ‘What happened last Sunday is a great tragedy, an insult to humanity,’ the cardinal said in a chapel at his residence, where the mass was attended by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. ‘Today during this mass we are paying attention to last Sunday's tragedy and we try to understand it,’ he said calling for prayers for the victims. ‘We pray that in this country there will be peace and co-existence and understanding each other without division,’ he said. The Sri Lankan military is still hunting Islamic State-linked militants and security across the country remains high. - Stuck in time - At exactly 8.45am, the singing of hymns by scores of people outside St. Anthony's church stopped and the bells tolled. The hands on the tower clock are stuck at the time of the blast. ‘I come to this church every Sunday, it feels like my second home,’ said Dharshika Fernando, 19, fighting back tears. ‘It feels like people blasted my own home.’ Thousands of Sri Lankan troops remained on the streets, guarding churches and mosques for the symbolic day. Security forces also carried out new arrests, a day after at least 15 people were killed in a raid on a jihadist hideout where suicide bombers blew themselves up. Police said they arrested two ‘most wanted’ suspects in connection with the Easter bombings, taking the total number in detention to more than 100. Mohamed Saadik Abdul Haq and Mohamed Saahid Abdul Haq were on a list of six ‘most wanted’ radicals issued on Thursday. Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said the two were arrested in the central region of Nawalapitiya, about 125 kilometres (78 miles) east of Colombo on Saturday night. President Sirisena said on Friday there are about 140 IS followers across the country who were still being hunted. ‘We can and we will eradicate all of them very soon,’ Sirisena vowed. - Schools stay closed - On Saturday, three men set off explosives killing themselves, three women and six children after a showdown with security forces near the eastern town of Kalmunai. Police said three other suspected suicide bombers were shot dead by security forces outside the hideout that had been under siege for more than an hour. A civilian was also killed in crossfire. The Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for the Easter bombings, said the three men who blew themselves up at Kalmunai were also members of the militant group. A statement posted by the IS propaganda unit, Amaq News Agency, said the men ‘clashed with them (Sri Lankan police) with automatic weapons, and after exhausting their ammunition, detonated on them their explosive belts.’ Kalmunai is in the same region as the hometown of the jihadist Zahran Hashim who founded the National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ) group accused of staging the attacks. Another raid in the region targeted a house where authorities said Hashim and the other sucide bombers filmed a pledge of allegiance to IS before staging their attacks. The video was shown by IS when it made its claim of responsibility. Video on state television showed explosives, a generator, a drone and a large quantity of batteries inside the converted studio. An IS flag and uniforms were also found, police said. The firebrand cleric is said to have died in the attack on the Shangri-La, one of three Colombo hotels hit by suicide bombers at the same time as the churches. Sirisena used emergency powers to officially ban the NTJ and a splinter group identified as Jamathei Millathu Ibraheem (JMI) on Saturday, his office announced. In a sign of the tensions, the reopening of schools across Sri Lanka scheduled for Monday has been put back one week. Authorities have also kept up a 10.00pm to 4.00am nationwide curfew.