Sri Lanka says threat persists despite arrests

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan authorities have arrested or killed all the militants responsible for Easter suicide bombings, but the island still faces the threat of “global terrorism,” the prime minister said yesterday. Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament that his Buddhist-majority nation was a victim of Islamist extremists and needed international support to deal with the persisting threat. “The danger is not over, we are now a victim of global terrorism,” Wickremesinghe said. “Even if we have arrested or killed every terrorist responsible for the Easter Sunday attacks, extremists abroad can still cause trouble for us. We need intelligence sharing with foreign partners to deal with this challenge.”

His comments came as police chief Chandana Wickramaratne said they have accounted for every individual involved in the April 21 attacks that killed 257 people at three churches and three luxury hotels. “All those who organised and carried out the suicide bomb attack have died or is in our custody,” Wickramaratne said. “The two bomb experts of the group have been killed. We have seized the explosives they had stored for future attacks.” Wickramaratne, who was named acting police chief last week after President Maithripala Sirisena suspended his predecessor over his failure to act on warnings about the attacks, said public life was slowly returning to normal.

The St Anthony’s church also partially opened yesterday for prayers amid tight security even as the military and police guarded the historic place of worship dating back to 1740. Police set up steel barricades outside and frisked people entering to pray before a statue of Saint Anthony. Church authorities said they will allow devotees for a 12-hour period until the church was fully restored. Sri Lanka’s navy is leading efforts to rebuild the church which is venerated not only by Catholics but also by many people of other faiths who believe in the miraculous powers of Saint Anthony.—AFP