Cardinal
Malcolm Ranjith delivers funeral
rituals during a funeral service for
Easter Sunday bomb blast victims at
St. Sebastian Church in Negombo, Sri
Lanka, Tuesday, April 23, 2019. (AP
Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
Sri
Lanka
minister:
Easter
bombings
a
response
to NZ
attacks
By
EMILY
SCHMALL
and
KRISHAN
FRANCIS
APNews.com
COLOMBO,
Sri
Lanka -
Sri
Lanka’s
state
minister
of
defense
said
Tuesday
that the
Easter
attack
on
churches,
hotels
and
other
sites
was
“carried
out in
retaliation”
for the
shooting
massacre
at two
New
Zealand
mosques
last
month,
as the
Islamic
State
group
sought
to claim
responsibility
for the
attack.
The
comments
by Ruwan
Wijewardene
came
shortly
before
the
Islamic
State
group
asserted
it was
responsible
for the
bombings
in and
outside
of
Colombo
that
killed
over 320
people.
But
neither
Wijewardene
nor IS
provided
evidence
to
immediately
support
their
claims,
and
authorities
previously
blamed a
little-known
Islamic
extremist
group in
the
island
nation
for the
attack.
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.
Authorities
announced
a
nationwide
curfew
would
begin at
9 p.m.
Tuesday.
As
Sri
Lanka’s
leaders
wrangled
with the
implications
of an
apparent
militant
attack
and
massive
intelligence
failure,
security
was
heightened
Tuesday
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
on three
churches
and
three
luxury
hotels
and
three
related
blasts
later
Sunday
was Sri
Lanka’s
deadliest
violence
in a
decade.
Wijewardene
said the
death
toll
from the
attack
now
stood at
321
people,
with 500
wounded.
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.
On
April
11,
Priyalal
Disanayaka,
Sri
Lanka’s
deputy
inspector
general
of
police,
signed a
letter
addressed
to the
directors
of four
Sri
Lankan
security
agencies,
warning
them
that a
local
group
was
planning
a
suicide
attack
in the
country.
The
intelligence
report
attached
to his
letter,
which
has
circulated
widely
on
social
media,
named
the
group
allegedly
plotting
the
attack,
National
Towheed
Jamaar,
identifying
its
leader
as
Zahran
Hashmi,
and said
it was
targeting
“some
important
churches”
in a
suicide
terrorist
attack
that was
planned
to take
place
“shortly.”
The
report
named
six
individuals
likely
to be
involved
in the
plot,
including
someone
it said
had been
building
support
for
Zahran
and was
in
hiding
since
the
group
clashed
with
another
religious
organization
in March
2018.
On
Monday,
Sri
Lanka’s
health
minister
held up
a copy
of the
intelligence
report
while
describing
its
contents,
spurring
questions
about
what Sri
Lanka
police
had done
to
protect
the
public
from an
attack.
It
was not
immediately
clear
what
steps
were
taken by
any of
these
security
directors.
Disanayaka
did not
answer
calls or
messages
seeking
comment.
Among
the 40
people
arrested
on
suspicion
of links
to the
bombings
were the
driver
of a van
allegedly
used by
the
suicide
attackers
and the
owner of
a house
where
some of
them
lived.
Heightened
security
was
evident
at an
international
airport
outside
the
capital
where
security
personnel
walked
explosive-sniffing
dogs and
checked
car
trunks
and
questioned
drivers
on roads
nearby.
Police
also
ordered
that
anyone
leaving
a parked
car
unattended
on the
street
must put
a note
with
their
phone
number
on the
windscreen,
and
postal
workers
were not
accepting
pre-wrapped
parcels.
A
block on
most
social
media
since
the
attacks
has left
a vacuum
of
information,
fueling
confusion
and
giving
little
reassurance
the
danger
had
passed.
Even
after an
overnight
curfew
was
lifted,
the
streets
of
central
Colombo
were
mostly
deserted
Tuesday
and
shops
closed
as armed
soldiers
stood
guard.
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
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.
Later
Tuesday,
the
Islamic
State
group
claimed
responsibility
for the
Sri
Lanka
attack
via its
Aamaq
news
agency,
but
offered
no
photographs
or
videos
of
attackers
pledging
their
loyalty
to the
group.
Such
material,
often
showing
suicide
bombers
pledging
loyalty
before
their
assaults,
offer
credibility
to their
claims.
The
group,
which
has lost
all the
territory
it once
held in
Iraq and
Syria,
has made
a series
of
unsupported
claims
of
responsibility.
Also
unclear
in
Sunday’s
attack
was the
motive.
The
history
of
Buddhist-majority
Sri
Lanka, a
country
of 21
million
including
large
Hindu,
Muslim
and
Christian
minorities,
is rife
with
ethnic
and
sectarian
conflict.
In
the
nation’s
26-year
civil
war, the
Tamil
Tigers,
a
powerful
rebel
army
known
for
using
suicide
bombers,
had
little
history
of
targeting
Christians
and was
crushed
by the
government
in 2009.
Anti-Muslim
bigotry
fed by
Buddhist
nationalists
has
swept
the
country
recently.
In
March
2018,
Buddhist
mobs
ransacked
businesses
and set
houses
on fire
in
Muslim
neighborhoods
around
Kandy, a
city in
central
Sri
Lanka
that is
popular
with
tourists.
After
the mob
attacks,
Sri
Lanka’s
government
also
blocked
some
social
media
sites,
hoping
to slow
the
spread
of false
information
or
threats
that
could
incite
more
violence.
Sri
Lanka,
though,
has no
history
of
Islamic
militancy.
Its
small
Christian
community
has seen
only
scattered
incidents
of
harassment.