Radical cleric is ‘ringleader’
belonging to Inshaf, as teams of officers and sniffer dogs scoured Ilham’s home. A white BMW parked outside was covered in dust from fingerprint checks.
Windows on the first floor were destroyed by the devastating impact of Fatima’s device.
Locals described the brothers’ father Yoonus Ibrahim as a millionaire businessman.
Next-door neighbour Pakeer Nazar, 51, and his niece Sajeethe Fakir Mohamed, 28, felt the house “shake” as Fatima detonated her bomb.
Pakeer said: “The Ibrahim family is very big, there are about eight brothers and three sisters.
“We saw their father, he is a spice dealer and very well known around here, and the sons.
“We did not see what happened after the ISLAMIST hate preacher Moulvi Zahran Hashim is the suspected chief plotter of the Sri Lanka basts.
The charismatic rabble-rouser used the burning Twin Towers as a backdrop to his fiery online sermons preaching violence against non-Muslims.
His name emerged in warnings earlier this month that radicals were planning attacks in Colombo — weeks explosion but heard that the officers had been killed. These are terrible times for Muslims here – we have had 10 years of peace and now this happens. Now I worry about the children going to school and what might happen to them.”
Mum-of-two Sajeethe said her husband Feisal, 37, was arrested after the incident because he went outside to see what was going on.
She added: “When the first bomb went off, we were told to stay in and not open the doors.
“Then the second bomb went off and my husband went out to see what was happening and he was arrested because he was outdoors.
“He is still in custody but has done nothing wrong.”
It is thought the second blast she referred to before the suicide bombings. He is said to have been the main lecturer for the terror group accused of launching the attack, National Thowheed Jamath.
Experts believe Hashim first emerged as a major Isis supporter in late 2017.
It is thought he shuttled between India and Sri Lanka, travelling by fishing boat to avoid detection. FANATIC Hashim chaos at the heart of the Sri Lankan government meant warnings weren’t passed on to ministers.
State minister Ruwan Wijewardene said early findings of the investigation suggested the bombings were carried out in revenge for the Christchurch attacks. Fifty Muslim worshippers were killed by an alleged white supremacist gunman on March 15 in New Zealand. Meanwhile, British counter-terror officers at MI5 are monitoring the blast aftermath for signs of a threat to the UK.
A senior Whitehall source told our sister paper the Mirror: “Intelligence officers inevitably are assessing at speed how the Sri Lanka attack could affect Britain.
“They are liaising with all of the other western intelligence agencies and the Sri Lankan authorities to see if there is a British link.
“It looks like an Islamic PROBE Cordon outside Ilham’s home
State-supported attack and what we predicted would happen has happened – that as it faced military defeat, IS ordered fighters to return to their homelands and launch attacks.”
Scotland Yard confirmed counter-terror officers were being deployed to Sri Lanka.
It is understood two SAS soldiers have also been sent to gather intelligence. was caused by another member of the terror gang, as there is damage to two floors at the address. This has yet to be confirmed by police.
Another neighbour, Zulker Nain, 28, watched as sniffer dogs went through the properties near to the address, including his own.
He said: “I could feel the blast as soon as the bomb went off. There was a kind of vibration and I went upstairs to see what was going on, to see where the noise came from.”
Locals at a nearby mosque said feelings against the bombers were running high.
“They have wrecked our lives now,” said one. “There are those who want to go and destroy their homes to show how strong our feelings are about what they have done.”
Ashkhan also said his family now wants to “shame” Inshaf.
The atrocity is said to have been led by radical Islamist group National Thowheed Jamath with support from abroad. Intelligence on the attacks was brought to police on April 4. But