Colombo, July 25: Sri Lanka‘s Easter Sunday suicide bombing terror attack that claimed lives of 258 people were carried out by the local Islamist group who follows the Islamic States (IS) ideology but weren’t linked to the IS militant group, according to a senior investigator said on Wednesday.
According to Dawn news reports, the Criminal Investigation Department head Ravi Seneviratne said the Easter Sunday attack over four hotels and three churches had no direct connection to the international jihadi organization.
Seneviratne has told a parliamentary council investigating intelligence and security lapse leading to the April 21 Easter Sunday attack: “They followed the IS ideology, but our investigations have not shown any link between them.”
He further noted the remnants local outfit identifies as NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama’ath) had persuaded the Islamists to claim the terror attack about two days after the Easter Sunday attack.
NTJ chief Zahran Hashim had released a video with his members vowing allegiance to the IS leader, Abe Bakr Al-Baghdadi. It was released within two days of the attack. Within five days of the terror attack, the nation’s police raided the purported location where the video had been filmed and recovered the IS flag which they used as a backdrop.