Colombo: The toll in Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday serial bomb attacks has risen to 359, the police said today amidst nationwide search operations to nab the perpetrators of the country’s worst terror attack.
In a related development, explosives were found inside a parked scooter overnight. According to reports, controlled explosion happened near Savoy Cinema when STF were defusing a bomb in a two-wheeler. No one was injured.
Sri Lanka’s Deputy Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardene confirmed the blast was a controlled explosion carried out by the police. According to Newsfirst, the explosion was used to open the seat of the suspicious motorbike.
Several people were arrested in connection with the attacks Tuesday, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said. “The number of deaths now is 359,” Gunasekera said.
The Islamic State (IS) terror group has claimed responsibility for the devastating Easter blasts in Sri Lanka and identified the suicide bombers involved in the attacks.
Seven suicide bombers carried out a series of devastating blasts that tore through churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, in the country’s worst terror attack.
Gunasekera said the search operations were carried out during Tuesday night’s curfew hours in different parts of the country.
The police arrested scores of people with suspected links to the National Thowheeth Jamath, the group which officials believe carried out the bombings.
Over 10 people have been arrested from the Muslim minority concentrated areas of Aluthgama and Beruwela, south of Colombo, the police said. Six more were arrested at Katuwapitiya in the western coastal area where the bombed St Sebastian’s Church is located.
Giving information on the suicide bombers, the police said the attacks at the Cinnamon Grand and Shangri La Hotels were carried out by two brothers.
The Cinnamon Grand Hotel bomber had booked himself into the hotel the previous night. CCTV footage show his breakfast table where he was seen consuming fruit and taking a walk around the restaurant before exploding himself.
Their younger brother has also been nabbed by the police. The house search had led to the discovery of extremist literature, a computer hard disk and SIM cards, thought to have been used to coordinate the blasts.
The police has already arrested the accomplices of the bomber of the lodging house near the National Zoo at the Colombo suburb of Dehiwela.
The tuk-tuk taxi driver who had taken him to the lodge was also arrested, the police said. The police suspect the bomber may have been targeting the nearby St Mary’s Church where a large gathering was present for Easter Sunday mass.
However, the presence of the police at the church, who were there due to a previous break-in into the church by thieves, had prevented the bomber’s entry into the church, officials said.
Speaker Karu Jayasuriya said Parliament would meet Wednesday to debate the security situation in the country in the aftermath of the serial blasts.
The emergency regulations announced by President Maithripala Sirisena would be presented for Parliament’s ratification.
The emergency powers allow security forces to launch crackdown on law and order breaches by sudden searches of property, arrests and detention of people indefinitely.
Jayasuriya told Parliament Tuesday that the security of Parliament has to be stepped-up as warnings were received.
Sirisena, in his national address Tuesday night, said the emergency regulations would only deal with counter-terrorism measures and in no way hamper democratic and civil freedom.
The Ministry of Education said the reopening of schools had been put off till April 29.