Sri Lanka attacksSri Lanka: Militant leader killed in Easter bombings

Published 26 April 2019

Sri Lankan Islamic militant leader Zahran Hashim was apparently killed in one of the suicide attacks on Easter, President Maithripala Sirisena said on Friday. Police are now hunting for 140 people with suspected “Islamic State” ties.

Sri Lankan Islamic militant leader Zahran Hashim was apparently killed in one of the suicide attacks on Easter, President Maithripala Sirisena said on Friday. Police are now hunting for 140 people with suspected “Islamic State” ties.

VOA reports that in the days following the church and hotel blasts, the government said local militants from the National Thowfeek Jamaath (NTJ) were behind the bombings, probably with help from abroad. Later, a video surfaced with the NTJ leader pledging his allegiance to IS. The attacks launched a nationwide manhunt for Hashim.

On Friday, President Sirisena said the NTJ leader died in one of the six deadly blast while taking part in the attack on the luxury Shangri-la hotel in the capital, Colombo.

What intelligence agencies have told me is that Zahran was killed during the Shangri-La attack,” Sirisena said.

In his address, Sirisena also said the government — led by his rival Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe— should take responsibility for mistakes which allowed the deadly attacks on churches and hotels on Easter to take place.

Sirisena said that after the end of the civil war – which pitted the separatists Tamil Tigers against the government — in the country in 2009, the government then in power had weakened the country’s defenses by prosecuting military intelligence officials.

The president also said that he had met his defense secretary and police chief in mid-April. At the time, the security officials had reports from “friendly nations” that an attack was being prepared, but they allegedly failed to share this information with Sirisena.

The president said the country’s police chief was about to resign.

On Thursday, Sri Lankan authorities lowered the death toll of from the blast from 359 to 253.

While talking to reporters, Sirisena also urged the nation not to view their Muslim minority as terrorists, and said that the authorities were able to “completely control” IS activities in the country.

Sri Lankan security agencies said that they have deployed some 10,000 troops across the country to search for suspects and provide security for religious temples.