Sri Lanka’s Easter attacks that killed 258 people were carried out by local Islamists who drew inspiration from but were not linked to the Islamic State group, according to a top investigator.
Ravi Seneviratne, the head of the Criminal Investigations Department, says the suicide bombers who targeted three churches and three hotels had no direct link to the foreign jihadi group.
“They followed the IS ideology, but our investigations have not shown any link between them,” Seneviratne tells a parliamentary panel probing security and intelligence lapses leading to the April 21 bombings.
A photo published on the Islamic State terror group’s propaganda outlet, the Amaq agency, on April 23, 2019, showing what the group says is eight bombers who carried out the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka. (Amaq)
He notes that remnants in the local group identified as National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) had persuaded IS to claim the attack two days after the deadly events in Sri Lanka.
NTJ leader Zahran Hashim had made a video with his fellow suicide bombers pledging allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr Al-Bagdadi. The video was released by the IS two days later.
— AFP
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