Sri Lanka warns another terror attack IMMINENT this time by jihadis dressed as soldiers
SRI LANKA has warned that another terror attack is IMMINENT – this time by jihadis dressed as soldiers. The militants were reportedly targeting five locations for further attacks to be carried out yesterday or today, according to security sources. “There could be another wave of attacks,” the head of the police ministerial security division […]
SRI LANKA has warned that another terror attack is IMMINENT – this time by jihadis dressed as soldiers.
The militants were reportedly targeting five locations for further attacks to be carried out yesterday or today, according to security sources.
“There could be another wave of attacks,” the head of the police ministerial security division (MSD) said in a letter to the government and other officials seen by news agency Reuters on Monday.
Sri Lankan security officials have warned that Islamist militants behind Easter Sunday’s suicide bombings are planning attacks and could be dressed in uniform.
The letter added: “The relevant information further notes that persons dressed in military uniforms and using a van could be involved in the attacks.”
There were no attacks on Sunday and security across Sri Lanka has been ramped up.
Scores of suspected Islamists have been arrested since the April 21 attacks on hotels and churches that killed more than 250 people, including 40 foreign nationals.
The government has also banned women from wearing face veils under an emergency law that was put in place after the attacks, says Reuters.
There have been concerns voiced within the Muslim community that the ban could fuel tensions in the multi-ethnic nation.
But government officials said it would help security forces identify people as a hunt for any remaining attackers and their support network continues across the Indian Ocean island.
CHURCH SECURITY ‘NOT ENOUGH’
However, the Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Ranjith, said that security had not been sufficiently stepped up around churches.
He told reporters: “We are not satisfied with the security arrangements and urge authorities to ensure our safety.”
Authorities suspect members of two little known groups – National Thawheedh Jamaath (NTJ) and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim – of carrying out the Easter attacks, though Islamic State has claimed responsibility.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said a tight-knit group of people was involved, mostly close friends and families.
They had been speaking face-to-face, possibly to evade electronic surveillance by officials.
Wickremesinghe told Reuters the group was “small enough that they were not using normal communications, instead meeting each other.
He added the coordinated bombings, the type of explosives used and the tightly guarded plot suggested the bombers had guidance.
Wickremesinghe added that, despite ISIS claiming responsibility for the atrocity, “we also felt there has to be some international links.”
Official say Zahran Hashim, the founder of NTJ, was the mastermind and one of the nine suicide bombers.
One military source told Reuters that five sets of white clothing commonly worn by Buddhists when visiting temples were recovered from a safe house in the east, the site of a gun battle on Friday that killed Zahran’s father and his two brothers.
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Sri Lanka’s Tourism Bureau chairman, Kishu Gomes, said tourist arrivals in Colombo were expected to fall 50 per cent over the next two months because of the bombings.
Tourist arrivals in areas elsewhere in Sri Lanka would likely go down by about 30 per cent, he told reporters at a travel conference in Dubai.
In India, cops said they had raided the homes of three people in the southern state of Kerala, close to Sri Lanka, in connection with their links to ISIS.
They did not say if there was any connection to the attacks in Sri Lanka.
