Easter blasts: Some terrorists had travelled to India, says Lanka

Chennai: The Sri Lankan army chief has said some of the people who carried out the 21 April serial bomb blasts in the island nation had travelled to India and visited Kashmir, Kerala and Bengaluru.

In an interview to BBC, published online Friday, Lt Gen Mahesh Senanayke said though it is not clear why they visited these parts of India, he said it could possibly be part of terrorism training or to link up with other terror outfits there.

“They had gone to India, travelling to Bangalore, Kashmir and Kerala State, (according to) information available with us,” Senanayke said.

Asked if he was aware of the purpose of those visits, he said: “It would have been for some sort of a training or to establish links with other organisations outside the country.”

Counter-terror agencies in India, such as the National Investigation Agency, carried out raids in parts of Tamilnadu and Kerala, where they have picked up several people with suspected links to the Islamic State – the Syria-based terror group that claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to Indian officials, at least two of the nine suicide bombers had travelled to India in 2017.

A Union Home Ministry official did not respond to Senanayke’s comment. “Sri Lanka hasn’t shared any such information with us. Importantly, Sri Lankan security agencies themselves have ruled this out after investigation,” a senior official in the security establishment, who did not wish to be named, said.

One of the key suspects believed by Indian officials to have visited India is Islamic preacher Maulvi Zahran bin Hashim – leader of Sri Lanka National Towheed Jama’at (NTJ) and the ringleader of Easter Sunday attackers.

Indian officials refused to share details about the purpose of Hashim’s visit or the people he was in touch with. Hashim, an official said, was initially associated with Tamil Nadu Towheed Jama’at (TNTJ) but the organisation was not found involved in any terror activities. He subsequently broke away to form his own, Sri Lanka National Towheed Jama’at (NTJ), and started preaching a violent form of Islam in the island nation.