President Maithripala Sirisena says there are a further 25 to 30 \u201cactive members\u201d linked to the Easter Sunday bombings still at large.<\/p>\n
Sirisena told Reuters on Saturday the security forces would \u201ceradicate terrorism\u201d following devastating suicide attacks on Easter Sunday and restore stability before a presidential election due by year-end.<\/p>\n
Sirisena also said in an interview he believed Islamic State was behind the April 21 attacks, which targeted churches and luxury hotels and killed more than 250 people including 42 foreign nationals. The group has claimed responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cElections cannot be postponed, therefore before the elections I will bring about stability and I will eradicate terrorism,\u201d Sirisena told Reuters. The elections are likely to take place between Nov. 10 and Dec. 10.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have already identified all active members of the group and it\u2019s a case of now arresting them,\u201d Sirisena said, adding that there were a further 25 to 30 \u201cactive members\u201d linked to the bombings still at large.<\/p>\n
Sirisena said that all indications suggested Islamic State had been involved, adding: \u201cIt\u2019s crystal clear because after the attacks the IS organization made an announcement claiming responsibility for the bombings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka authorities have previously said that they suspect the attackers had international links, although the precise nature of those connections is not known.<\/p>\n
Police have said they are also investigating the possible involvement of two previously little-known groups \u2013 National Thawheedh Jamaath and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim.<\/p>\n
Sirisena said that intelligence services from eight countries, including the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Interpol, were helping Sri Lanka with the investigation.<\/p>\n
Local intelligence officials believe that Zahran Hashim, a radical Tamil-speaking preacher from the east of the Indian Ocean island nation, may have been a key player in plotting the Easter bombings. Officials believe he was one of nine suicide bombers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Maithripala Sirisena says there are a further 25 to 30 \u201cactive members\u201d linked…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-srilankan-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}