Lanka fears int’l link to terror attacks

A wave of bombings that killed 290 people in Sri Lanka on Sunday was carried out with the support of an international network, officials said, reports BBC.

But Jamaat al-Tawhid al-Watania, a little-known group in the country, claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks carried out in Sri Lanka on Sunday, the Al-Arabiya TV channel said on Twitter on Monday without providing any details about the group, according to the Russian news agency TASS.

On Monday, another blast rocked a street near a church in the capital, Colombo. Police were attempting to defuse explosives in a vehicle used by the attackers when it blew up.

Sri Lankan authorities were warned about a bomb threat from National Thowheed Jamath a full two weeks before the attacks, cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said at a press conference.

He said that the warnings were not passed on to the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, or his cabinet. Mr Wickremesinghe acknowledged that security services had been "aware of information" but had not acted on the information.

Mr Senaratne said that authorities believed the bombers had international support. "We do not believe these attacks were carried out by a group of people who were confined to this country," he said.

"There was an international network without which these attacks could not have succeeded," he added.

According to Reuters, spread of communal violence was feared following the terror attacks with the police reporting late on Sunday a petrol bomb attack on a mosque in the northwest and arson attacks on two shops owned by Muslims in the west in the wake of the terror attacks in Sri Lanka.

An AFP report adds: Interpol was deploying a team of investigators, including experts in disaster victim identification, to Sri Lanka to help local authorities in the aftermath of the deadly suicide bomb blasts that killed nearly 300 people, the international police organisation said on Monday.

Interpol said it was deploying an Incident Response Team (IRT) at the request of the Sri Lanka authorities, including specialists with expertise in crime scene examination, explosives, counter-terror and victim identification.

"If required, additional expertise in digital forensics, biometrics, as well as photo and video analysis will also be added to the team on the ground," it added.

Interpol Secretary General Juergen Stock said the organisation will "continue to provide whatever support is necessary."

"Information to help identify individuals linked to these attacks could come from anywhere in the world, which is where Interpol's global network and databases can prove vital, especially for officers on the ground," he said.