A Sri Lankan court has ordered the continued detention of the former head of the state intelligence service in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed nearly 270 people.
Sri Lanka commemorated the 7th anniversary of the Easter blasts, with Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith urging authorities to investigate individuals directly or indirectly involved in the deadly attacks, irrespective of their status.
Kin of 2019 Easter Sunday attack victims in Sri Lanka protested against alleged opposition attempts to obstruct ongoing investigations. The protests follow the arrest of former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay and accusations of political conspiracy related to the attacks. The current government has reopened the probe, citing past political interference.
Suresh Sallay, former intelligence chief, has been ordered to appear in a Sri Lankan court next month as the third suspect in the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks probe. He is currently detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
A Sri Lankan court has imposed an overseas travel ban on former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and two former military officers in connection with ongoing investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks. The ban was issued after the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) raised concerns that their flight could hamper the probe into the coordinated suicide bombings that killed 270 people. The current government reopened the investigation in late 2024, alleging political influence led to an earlier cover-up.
Sri Lanka's response to the Easter attacks has been slow and politically contested, unlike India's swift institutional reforms after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, observes Colonel R Hariharan (retd).
Sri Lankan opposition leaders are protesting the detention and alleged mistreatment of former state intelligence chief Suresh Sallay, who was hospitalised after a hunger strike. Sallay was arrested in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings investigation, and his wife has raised concerns about his treatment and restricted access.
On this day last year, ICC Anti-Corruption council officer Steve Richardson chose to eat breakfast in the executive lounge on the ninth floor of Cinnamon Grand instead of heading down to restaurant, a decision that saved him from the Easter Bombings. Richardson, who was in the country along with his colleagues to investigate corruption charges against Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), was staying on the ninth floor of the hotel in Colombo, one of the six locations where bombs went off in a series of blasts, killing and injuring hundreds of people across the country.
The suspicious van was wanted over the terror attacks and was taken into custody at Sungavila.
Anurag Kashyap, despite his claims of being done with Bollywood, continues to deliver compelling cinema, with his latest film 'Bandar' set to release on June 5.
The details of the attackers and their relatives linked to the bombings was released by the police on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a three-member committee appointed to probe the attacks that killed 258 people, including 11 Indians, on Monday submitted its final report to President Maithripala Sirisena.
The NIA had alerted the island nation that ISIS terrorists were planning to carry out strikes there.
Trump may strike. He may announce productive talks and extend again. He may do both at the same time. Iran will not open the Strait on someone else's terms, so no matter what happens, that problem will remain unsolved. And the IRGC will still be collecting its $2 million toll from every ship bold enough to ask permission to pass.
Both sides have now revealed a preference for escalation over strategic defeat, and each new provocation narrows the space for the next pause. The Touska seizure, Iran's refusal to negotiate under blockade, Israel's strikes on Iranian oil infrastructure -- all of these add up to an increasingly untenable situation. This makes the wild card -- Trump and his motormouth -- more consequential than ever, notes Prem Panicker in his must read blog on the Iran War.
The purge in Washington does not pause the war. Strikes continue, Hormuz remains closed, and Brent crude is still dancing around $109 a barrel. For India, the command chaos in the Pentagon is another layer of uncertainty piled on five weeks of conflict that was already straining every buffer Delhi has.
A Sri Lankan court on Friday named former president Maithripala Sirisena as a suspect in the 2019 Easter bombings in which 270 people, including 11 Indians, were killed.
On April 17, 2022, hundreds of Sri Lankans lit candles and displayed banners and placards during a silent protest in the capital Colombo, calling for justice for victims of the April 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks.
The curfew was imposed on Sunday after a group of miscreants carrying swords attacked some people travelling on a three-wheeler in Porathota area of the town. The vehicle was set on fire.
A man, one of the six accused in the explosion case in Coimbatore, confessed during interrogation that he met two men in a Kerala prison who had links with an ISIS group involved in the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka, police sources said on Friday.
At least 50 people were feared killed in two car bomb explosions near a church during Easter Sunday services in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna, eye-witnesses and emergency services said.
Mohamed Naufar, Mohamed Anwar Mohamed Riskan and Ahamed Milhan Hayathu Moahmed are currently in custody in Sri Lanka, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed Friday.
The decision came after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin recommended an investigation by the National Investigation Agency into the Sunday blast in which an engineer was killed.
Forty suspects, including the driver of a van allegedly used by the suicide bombers, have been arrested in connection with the attacks which shook Sri Lanka.
National flags were lowered and people bowed their heads as the silence began at 8:30 am local time, the time the first of the attacks occurred on Sunday.
The blasts -- one of the deadliest attacks in the country's history -- targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 am (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress.
-- Seven suicide bombers believed to be members of an Islamist extremist group carried out the series of explosions. -- Police have so far arrested 24 people - mostly members of an Islamist extremist group - in connection with the blasts
The National Tawheed Jamath is suspected of plotting the deadly Easter blasts.
The PM said the government knew that Sri Lankan nationals who joined the Islamic State had returned, but they could not be arrested as joining a foreign terrorist organisation is not against the law in the island nation.
The NIA on Thursday filed a chargesheet against six people in connection with the October 2022 Coimbatore car bomb blast, saying the prime accused of the terrorist attack was "inspired by ISIS ideology".
Seven persons had been arrested in connection with the blasts.
The commander said that by looking at the pattern of operation and the places that the suspects travelled, there has to be some outside involvement of some leadership or instructions.
"My heart goes out to the families of the victims and the injured," Modi said.
Dr Anil Jasinghe, Director General of the Health Services, said the larger death toll was released as a result of a calculation error.
Sri Lankan cricketer Dasun Shanaka revisited the Easter Sunday horror, the serial blasts that took place in the country on Sunday, leaving almost 300 people dead and more than 500 injured.
President Maithripala Sirisena has issued a gazette notice banning three Islamic extremist organisations, including National Thowheeth Jama'ath that was blamed for the Easter bombings.
A tribunal of the Delhi high court has confirmed the extension of a five-year ban imposed on Islamic Research Foundation, set up by fugitive Zakir Naik who is accused of inspiring Muslim youths in India and abroad to commit terror acts.
29-year-old Riyas A, also known as Riyas Aboobacker or Abu Dujana, a resident of Palakkad was a follower of Sri Lankan Easter bombing mastermind Zahran Hashim.
Even as the polity find ways and means to address the genuine concerns and fears of the society, the Sri Lankan State apparatus would have to unravel these mystery-questions with convincing answers, and a road-map to the future, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The NIA has shared with states concerned a list of 125 suspected activists who have close links with the JMB leadership'
