Intelligence officials in Sri Lanka warned that terrorist elements, including the radical Islamic organization NTJ, would carry out a suicide attack in certain churches during Easter, as was reported by INN.
Edited by: JV Staff
In the terror attack on Sunday, at least 207 people were killed and more than 450 wounded during Easter Sunday prayers. Dozens of victims were evacuated to hospitals in the capital Colombo.
“Serious action need to be taken as to why this warning was ignored,” Sri Lanka’s Minister of Telecommunications, Harin Fernando, tweeted along with a photo of the memo. The document, titled “Information of an alleged plan attack,” is dated April 11 and signed by the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Priyalal Dissanayake.
A source in the Sri Lankan security services, who spoke with the Associated Press, reported that eight explosions occurred almost simultaneously. According to him, a suspicion that suicide bombers blew themselves up at the entrance to the churches is being investigated. About four hours later another blast was heard in Dehiwela, a suburb of the city of Colombo, in which at least two other people were killed.
Among the dead are 35 foreigners, including French, Americans and Dutch.
The Guardian of the UK reported that late Sunday night, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said a total of 13 suspects had now been arrested. A police source told AFP the 13 men were detained at two locations in and around Colombo, and that the suspects were all from the same radical group.
No group has yet claimed direct responsibility for the attacks. Previously, police said eight had been arrested.
In a statement, Gunasekara said police had seized a van and driver they suspected transported the suspects into Colombo and also raided a safe house used by the attackers. Three police officers were among the dead when the eighth suicide bomb blast went off during a police raid on a housing complex in Colombo during the hunt for the attackers.
CNN reported that tourists and residents attempting to get in touch with relatives via social media on Monday were unable to do so without a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or a foreign SIM card, after the government ordered a block on social media in the aftermath of the attacks.
Attempts to load Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and the messaging app Viber all failed Monday morning. Twitter appears to be accessible and some government ministers have been tweeting out information.
Some Sri Lankans have been circumventing the blocks with VPNs. People using foreign SIM cards which roam onto non-Sri Lankan networks were unaffected.
The Israeli consul in India, Eli Sneh, said that at this stage there are no known Israeli casualties in the Sri Lanka attacks.
Sri Lankan emergency teams responding to a string of deadly bombings across the island nation were trained in part by Israel, in a special program to prepare first responders in the Sri Lankan capital to handle a variety of large-scale disasters – including multiple terror attacks.
Local emergency teams called upon to conduct search and rescue missions and to treat the victims received special training from Israeli first responder teams, preparing them for a variety of scenarios – including large-scale terror attacks.
According to a spokesman for the United Hatzalah emergency responder organization, earlier this year, Israeli rescue teams from United Hatzalah traveled to the Sri Lankan capital city of Colombo to train local teams to prepare them for possible mass-casualty incidents, including mega-terror attacks.
The program, a joint effort of the American Jewish Committee and United Hatzalah, began in December 2018 and continued into January, with training programs in both India and Sri Lanka.
“This past January, the AJC and United Hatzalah teamed up to train first responders in Colombo, Sri Lanka in mass casualty incidents and disaster management,” United Hatzalah said in a statement Sunday. “The mission, which was funded by the AJC, brought experts from United Hatzalah of Israel to train members of local response organizations in how to provide quick and effective emergency response to large scale emergencies ranging from natural disasters to terror attacks.”
