One of the suicide bombers behind the Easter Sunday massacre in Sri Lanka that killed nearly 360 people lived and studied in Australia, the country’s authorities say.
Sri Lanka’s deputy defence minister Ruwan Wijewardene said on Wednesday one of the bombers went to university in the UK and then in Australia.
It came as police confirmed the death toll had risen to 359. A further 18 suspects were arrested overnight, bringing the total detained to 58.
Mr Wijewardene said many of the suspects were “well educated and come from upper middle class and so they are financially independent”.
“That’s a worrying factor in this because some of them have studied in various other countries,” he said.
“They hold degrees. We believe one of the suicide bombers studied in the UK and later on did his postgraduate in Australia before coming back to Sri Lanka.”
In a statement, a Home Affairs spokesperson said the government “can confirm that one of the alleged suicide bombers involved in the attacks in Sri Lanka has previously held a visa for Australia”.
“It would be inappropriate to comment further on an active investigation,” they said. “The Australian Government will continue to provide assistance requested by Sri Lanka.”
Islamic State on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Mr Wijewardene earlier on Tuesday told parliament two Sri Lankan Islamist groups, National Thowheeth Jama’ath and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim, were responsible.
Sri Lanka now says nine suicide bombers were involved, eight of whom have been identified. One of the bombers was a woman.
Mr Wijewardene confirmed a number of the bombers had previously been in police custody.
“Yes, some of them I think on earlier incidents have been taken into custody and on small skirmishes … but nothing to this magnitude before,” he said.
He reiterated his claim from Tuesday that the attacks were motivated as revenge for last month’s Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand.
“What happened in New Zealand motivated what happened on Easter Sunday,” he said.
He warned there was still a danger that “there could still be a few people out there”.
“We are asking the people to be vigilant,” he said. “I’m not saying the country is 100 per cent at the moment. Within the next few days, we will have the situation totally under control.”
Sri Lanka declared a state of emergency from midnight on Monday, giving police and military expanded power to detain suspects.
Mr Wijewardene admitted there was “definitely a lapse of intelligence”, saying the government “has to take responsibility”.
In the wake of the bombings it emerged Sri Lankan authorities had been warned of the attacks at least 10 days in advance, but that information was not shared with the Prime Minister.
“I think, at least this could have been avoided or even minimised, the situation could have been minimised,” he said.
“We cannot shake off — the government cannot say that we’re not responsible. There is a certain degree of responsibility here.”
Mr Wijewardene said more arrests would be made in coming days as police probed Islamic State’s claimed involvement.
He said for the past three or four years authorities had been looking at the “infiltration of IS people”.
“There have some people who have travelled to Syria to take up the cause, but their families also have been under surveillance and everything,” he said.
“Until Easter Sunday … it was being monitored, but we didn’t know it was going to go into this. At least, I didn’t know that it was going to be scaled up to this.”
Meanwhile, Mr Wijewardene said police carried out a controlled explosion while investigating a “suspicious” motorbike parked outside the Savoy cinema in Colombo on Wednesday afternoon.
That came after a van parked near St Anthony’s Shrine exploded on Monday night as police attempted to defuse three bombs discovered inside. No injuries were reported.
Suicide bombers struck six locations near simultaneously on Sunday — the Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury hotels, St Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo, St Sebastian’s church in Negombo and Zion Church in Batticaloa.
Two more bombs exploded hours later, one near an overpass on the outskirts of Colombo and another at a safe house near that blast, killing three police officers.
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April 24, 2019 at 01:30PM
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