Sri Lanka: Confirming, for the first time, that the militants and visited India ahead of the attack on Sri Lanka, the island nation’s army chief said that some of the suicide bombers visited Kashmir and Kerala for “some sort of training” or to “make some more links” with other foreign outfits.
It can be recalled that Sri Lanka witnessed a series of bomb blasts on Easter Sunday, April 21, carried out by nine suicide bombers, which resulted in the death of 253 people and serious injuries to over 500 others. The blasts ripped apart three churches and three luxury hotels.
Speaking to BBC, Commander of the Army Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake said that, according to the information available to them, the suspects went to Kashmir, Bengaluru and Kerala.
While the Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility for the attacks, the Sri Lankan government has laid blame on a local Islamist extremist group called the National Thowheeth Jamaath (NTJ). The group has been banned by the government and over 100 persons connected to the blasts, have been arrested.
The army chief, when asked about the involvement of foreign groups, stated that the pattern of operation and places of the suspects’ travel, shows that outside leadership or instruction is involved.
India had informed the island nation about the attack beforehand, however, the threat was not taken seriously. When he was asked why this happened, the Commander said that there was a gap in the intelligence sharing, situations and military intelligence that everyone can see today.
He added that he believes that everybody responsible for intelligence gathering and national security and the political hierarchy is to be blamed.
Asked why Sri Lanka was targeted, the Commander said: “Too much of freedom, too much of peace for the last 10 years. People forget what happened for 30 years. People are enjoying peace and they neglected security”.
He was referring to the three-decade civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which ended in 2009 after claiming at least 1,00,000 lives.
“We are deployed on the ground to give confidence to the public and ensure there is no violence or escalation of communal riots in this country. Have trust on the armed forces and the Police of this country who will bring normalcy as soon as possible,” the Army chief added.
With inputs from PTI
