‘SRI LANKA WAS WARNED OF THREAT’
Intelligence officers were tipped off hours before attack, say three sources
SRI Lankan intelligence officials were tipped off about an imminent attack by Islamist militants hours before a series of suicide bombings killed more than 300 people on Easter Sunday, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Three churches and four hotels were hit by suicide bombers on Sunday morning, killing 321 people and wounding 500, sending shockwaves through an island state that has been relatively peaceful since a civil war ended a decade ago.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks yesterday, without providing evidence of
its involvement.
Indian intelligence officers contacted their Sri Lankan counterparts two hours before the first attack to warn of a specific threat on churches, one Sri Lankan defence source and an Indian government source said.
Another Sri Lankan defence source said a warning came “hours before” the first strike.
One of the Sri Lankan sources said a warning was also sent by the Indians on Saturday night. The Indian government source said similar messages had been given to Sri Lankan intelligence agents on April 4 and April 20.
Sri Lanka’s presidency and the Indian Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, citing an initial police probe, the government said yesterday the bombings were carried out in revenge for last month’s attacks on two mosques in New Zealand.
“The preliminary investigations have revealed that what happened in Sri Lanka was in retaliation for the attack against Muslims in Christchurch,” state Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardene told Parliament.
Fifty people were shot dead on March 15 at two mosques in the New Zealand city by an avowed white nationalist.
Wijewardene said the group behind the Sri Lanka bombings was the little-known National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), an extremist Islamist group previously blamed for defacing Buddhist statues.
Police have detained at least 40 people as they investigate the worst act of violence in the country since a civil war ended a decade ago.
Yesterday, grieving Sri Lankans began to bury their dead and the country observed a day of national mourning.
Three minutes of silence were marked nationwide from 8.30am, the time the first suicide bomber struck on Sunday, unleashing carnage at three hotels and three churches packed with Easter worshippers.
Flags were lowered to half mast on government buildings, and liquor shops were ordered closed for the day.
Hours earlier, the government imposed a state of emergency, giving police and the military special powers, including the ability to arrest suspects without a court order.
More than a thousand people gathered yesterday at St Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, north of here, which was among those hit in the blasts, to pay tribute to the dead.
An elderly man wept uncontrollably by the coffin bearing the body of his wife, while relatives of other victims stood aghast and silent.
Coffins were carried into the church grounds for services, and then to a newly-established cemetery on church land.
“It’s beyond words,” said Father Suranga Warnakulasuriya, who had come from another parish to help conduct funerals.
“It’s very hard to bear. For me it is very difficult, so imagine how hard it is for the loved ones.”
The attacks were the worst ever against the country’s small Christian minority, who make up just seven per cent of the 21 million population.
Investigators were hunting for clues on whether NTJ had international support, with government officials saying the attack seemed too well-coordinated for the small group to have carried out alone.
President Maithripala Sirisena’s office said there was intelligence that “international terror groups” were behind the local perpetrators and that he would seek foreign help to investigate.
Officials were investigating why more precautions were not taken after an April 11 warning from Sri Lanka’s police that a “foreign intelligence agency” had reported NTJ planned suicide attacks on churches.
Government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said the warning was not passed on to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe or other top ministers.