SRI LANKAN BOMBING

Police quiz NZ family

The mother and a sister of one of the Sri Lankan Easter Sunday suicide bombers live in Auckland and are being spoken to by Kiwi police.

Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed was one of the terrorist bombers who attempted to blow up the luxury Taj Samudra hotel in the capital, Colombo. He is believed to have botched his attempt to detonate his bomb at the five-star hotel and instead blew himself up at a nearby budget motel, killing two guests. The attacks that killed 257 people. Mohamed’s mother moved to Auckland with her daughter, who married a Sri Lankan New Zealander.

The family, who live in a modest house in South Auckland, refuse to comment on the extent of their involvement in the police investigation into the bombings, spanning NZ Police and Sri Lankan authorities.

“We are just co-operating with police, whatever they want to know, that’s about it,” the believed brotherin-law of Mohamed told the Weekend Herald.

NZ Police confirmed they had been in touch with relatives of a suspect involved in the bombings.

“Police are aware that relatives of a person allegedly involved in the Sri Lanka bombings reside in New Zealand. We have engaged with the family and they are co-operating fully,” a NZ Police spokesperson said.

Mohamed, 37, was one of nine people Sri Lanka’s police said staged the attacks.

Parked in the driveway of the family’s South Auckland home for several days was a vehicle with a bumper sticker stating “Stop the occupation, free Palestine”, with maps illustrating the encroaching Israeli occupation of the West Bank from 1947 to 2016.

Ten years ago, after Mohamed’s father Abdul Latif died, his mother moved the family to Colombo, renting the upper floor of a mansion.

After returning from studying in Britain, Mohamed moved into the property and fell in love with their landlord’s daughter, Shifana.

They married before moving to Australia so he could pursue postgraduate studies.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Samsul Hidaya, another sister of Mohamed, based in the UK, said:

“Something happened to him in Australia that changed his personality. He became silent and aloof.”