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SRILANKA-ATTACKS-LEAD
More Sri Lanka attacks feared as Muslims condemn Easter bombs
COLOMBO, May 3, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Sri Lanka bolstered security Friday 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.
Islamist 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 Friday during a tour of island’s
east, where a Christian 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.
– Prayers under security –
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, told AFP. “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 told AFP 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.
– Muslims co-operate –
Senaratne said the country’s minority 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 Islamic State-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.
BSS/AFP/RY/1935 hrs