By: LekshmiSajeev
Sri Lanka’s military launched a major hunt on Saturday (25) for remnants of an Islamist group which carried out the Easter suicide bombings that killed 258 people, officials said.
Several Colombo suburbs were targeted by troops using emergency powers on arrests and detentions adopted after the April 21 attacks. “Special cordon-and-search operations are underway in three areas just outside Colombo,” a military official told reporters.
Similar operations were also carried out in North Western Province, near Colombo, where anti-Muslim riots this month left one man dead and hundreds of Muslim-owned shops, homes and mosques destroyed.
Security forces have arrested scores of suspects in connection with the bombings of three hotels and three churches and over what appeared to be organised violence against the island’s Muslim minority.
While authorities say the immediate jihadist threat has been blunted, president Maithripala Sirisena on Wednesday extended for one month the 30-day state of emergency imposed after the suicide bombings.
Sirisena said the move was to maintain “public security,” with the country still on edge after the attacks on three hotels and three churches that were blamed on a local jihadi group, the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ).
The Islamic State group has also claimed a role in the attacks.
AFP
