bdmetronews Desk॥ Sri Lanka said Monday it believed a local Islamist extremist group was behind deadly suicide bomb blasts that killed nearly 300 people as it announced a national state of emergency beginning midnight.
Government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said investigators were looking at whether the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) group had “international support” for the deadly Easter Sunday attacks on churches and luxury hotels.
Wary of stirring ethnic and religious tensions, officials have provided few details about 24 people arrested since the attacks.
Not much is known about the NTJ, but documents seen by AFP show Sri Lanka’s police chief issued a warning on April 11, saying a “foreign intelligence agency” had reported the group was planning attacks on churches and the Indian high commission.
The group has previously been linked to the vandalising of Buddhist statues.
The death toll from Sunday’s attacks rose dramatically Monday to 290 — including dozens of foreigners — in the country’s worst attacks for over a decade.
More than 500 people were injured in the assault that saw suicide bombers hit three high-end hotels popular with foreign tourists, and three churches, unleashing carnage in Colombo and beyond.
Two additional blasts were triggered as security forces carried out raids searching for suspects.
As tension remained high, police on Monday said they had found 87 bomb detonators — 12 of them scattered on the ground at a bus station and another 75 in a nearby garbage dump.
The president’s office said a state of emergency “limited to counter terrorism regulations only” would be introduced from midnight Monday (1830 GMT).
“This is being done to allow the police and the three forces to ensure public security,” the statement said, referring to the army, navy and air force.
