A police chief in Sri Lanka had warned of potential suicide bombing plots on 'prominent churches' from Islamic extremists ten days before the attacks
A police chief in Sri Lanka had warned of potential suicide bombing plots on ‘prominent churches’ from Islamic extremists ten days before the attacks which killed over 300 people and injured many more. Seven suspects have so far been arrested after the blasts hit high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on Sunday.
Recently a religious divide has taken hold in the country; 70 percent are Buddhist, 13 per cent Hindu, 10 per cent Muslims, and seven per cent Christians, according to the country’s 2012 census.
A foreign intelligence agency reported that the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama’ath), a radical Muslim group in Sri Lanka linked last year to the vandalisation of Buddhist statues, was planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches as well as the Indian high commission in Colombo,’ the alert said.
The first blast was reported at St Anthony’s Shrine, a well-known Catholic church in the capital Colombo. A second deadly explosion was then confirmed at St Sebastian’s, a church in the town of Negombo, north of the capital. Soon after, police confirmed that a third church in the town of Batticaloa had been hit, along with three high-end hotels in the capital.
Hospital sources said British, Dutch and American citizens were among the dead, with Britons and Japanese among those injured in the attacks.
