Sri Lankan police discover a camp where militants linked to the deadly Easter attacks are believed to have practiced shooting and bomb-making
A police officer stands inside a training camp allegedly linked to militants in Kattankudy, near Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, on May 5, 2019. Sri Lankan police on Sunday discovered a 10-acre camp in the eastern town of Kattankudy, where militants linked to the deadly Easter attacks are believed to have practiced shooting and bomb-making.The narrow, sandy plot is dotted with a cinderblock four-storey watchtower, as well as mango trees, a chicken coop and a goat shed.
Cardinal Malcom Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, offered a televised Mass from his residence that was attended mostly by priests and nuns. The officer said an investigation was underway into the clashes, the first violence between Muslims and Christians since the Easter Sunday attacks targeting three churches and three luxury hotels in the country.Sri Lanka's Catholic cardinal received "foreign information" that attempts would be made this week to attack a church and another church institution, according to a letter he sent Thursday to church officials that later appeared on social media.
A spokesman for Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said on Thursday the Church received "specific information of two possible attacks against churches," and it was decided to call off the May 5 mass. The ban on platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Viber has been lifted with immediate effect, the source told Reuters.
"The relevant information further notes that persons dressed in military uniforms and using a van could be involved in the attacks."Tourist arrivals in Colombo to drop by 50 percent Over the weekend, two sources in the president's office told Reuters that Pujith Jayasundara, the police chief during the April 21 attacks, was refusing a request from the president to step down.Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Sunday announced a ban on face covering, a week after terrorists carried out coordinated suicide bombings that killed 253 people.
Muslims in the majority Buddhist nation account for about 10 percent of its 21 million population. Only a small number of women wear the face veil or niqab, as it's known.Sri Lankan armed police on Sunday launched a search of the headquarters of the National Thawheedh Jamaath, suspected of being behind the suicide bombings on churches and hotels that killed more than 250 people.
The bells rang out at 8.45 am, the moment a suicide bomber detonated his device inside the 18th-century church on Easter Sunday, one of six attacks on churches and luxury hotels that left 253 dead. Keuslaus Stanislaus said he had travelled to St Anthony's because he "wanted to participate in a mass in some way".'Insult to humanity'"I come to this church every Sunday. It feels like my second home. It's like people blasted my own home," said Dharshika Fernando, struggling to hold back tears.About an hour after the vigil began, worshippers fell silent as the parish priest walked out to the entrance of the church and held up a statue of St Anthony.
The authorities have blamed the attacks on a local group affiliated to Daesh, which has claimed responsibility.Daesh has claimed responsibility for three men who blew themselves up in clashes with Sri Lankan police, the terror group said in a statement. Kalmunai is in the same region as the home town of the terrorist Zahran Hashim who founded the group accused of staging the attacks.Ajai Sahni, the executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, said the Indian police knew it all.
The office of President Maithripala Sirisena said in a statement Saturday evening that NTJ and Jamathei Millathu Ibraheem would be banned by presidential decree. A military spokesman said soldiers exchanged gunfire with suspects after attempting to raid a building in Sri Lanka's Eastern Province. ''A search found explosives used to produce bombs, IS [Daesh] uniforms, curtains with IS [Daesh] logo, 150 gelignite sticks, 100,000 metal balls and a drone camera from a house in Samanthurai," a spokesman said. TRT World Nearly 10,000 soldiers were deployed across the Indian Ocean island state to carry out searches and provide security for religious centres, the military said on Friday.
At least 140 people believed linked to Daesh are being hunted by the police, President Maithripala Sirisena said on Friday.Sri Lankan authorities are investigating the source of funding to terrorist organisations that may be operating in the country, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in an interview on Thursday.
"But the main reason we are here is because we want to say a special prayer for the victims of the church bombings," he added. He added that Hashim led the attack against the high-end hotel and was accompanied by a second bomber, identified only as "Ilham."
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