For Quick Alerts
ALLOW NOTIFICATIONS  
For Daily Alerts
Oneindia App Download

How ISIS infiltrated Sri Lanka and helped carry out the Colombo bombings

|
Google Oneindia News

Colombo, Apr 23: Sri Lanka has said that they do not believe that only locals were involved in the ghastly suicide bombings at Colombo.

There were clear indications of an Islamic State hand in the attack. Post the attack, several pro-ISIS channels portrayed that the attack was a revenge for strikes on Mosques and Muslims in General.

How ISIS infiltrated Sri Lanka and helped carry out the Colombo bombings

On Monday more such channels released images of the bombers and identified them as Aby Ubaida, Abu Mukhtar and Abu Barra. Moreover the attack also comes a month after an ISIS operative Abu Hassan al-Mujahir released a video in which he called for revenge in the aftermath of the New Zealand Mosque attack, which claimed 50 lives.

Colombo bombings: How fate caught up to the suicide bombersColombo bombings: How fate caught up to the suicide bombers

Government's spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said local Islamist extremist group called the National Tawheed Jamath (NTJ) is suspected of plotting the blasts that struck three churches when the Easter Sunday mass were in progress and three five-star hotels.

"All suicide bombers involved in the blasts are believed to be Sri Lankan nationals," said Senaratne, who is also the Health Minister.

Speaking at a press conference here, Senaratne said the government was investigating whether the group had "international support". "There may be international links to them," he added.

The ISIS link:

It may be recalled that in 2016 there were reports that 32 elite Muslims had joined the Islamic State. The ISIS had warned that it would target the Buddhists in Sri Lanka.

Further looking at the pattern of the blast and also the fact that the attack was targeted only at the Catholics and foreigners, it suggests that the outfit has a hand behind this attack.

NTJ backed by ISIS behind Colombo suicide bombingsNTJ backed by ISIS behind Colombo suicide bombings

An Intelligence Bureau (IB) official in India tells OneIndia that the target was clearly the Catholics. The Christians who form 6 per cent of the country's population were out in large numbers due to Easter. Moreover the attack comes 10 days after a warning was issued about Churches being attacked in the country.

A message received by the police on April 11 stated that 11 Churches would be attacked. It was further warned that all the Catholics should go home and this should be informed to all the families.

With the blasts today, the intelligence in Sri Lanka has warned that there could be more attacks. The country has been placed under very high alert and security has been tightened all over.

For Daily Alerts
Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
X