Sri Lanka Attacks Live Updates: Terrorist Group Is Identified, and Death Toll Rises - The New York

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Sri Lanka Attacks Live Updates: Terrorist

Group Is Identified, and Death Toll Rises
By The New York Times

April 22, 2019

• The government on Monday blamed a little-known radical Islamist group for the
devastating Easter Sunday suicide bombings that killed nearly 300 people. Officials
said the group, which had not carried out any serious attacks before, had received
help from an international terrorist organization.

• Sri Lanka’s security forces were warned at least 10 days before the bombings that
the militant group was planning attacks against churches, but apparently took no
action against it, indicating a catastrophic intelligence failure. Top government
officials say the
ASIAwarning
PACIFIC never reached them.

• The Sri Lankan police have arrested 24 people in connection with the explosions at
hotels and churches.

• A dusk-to-dawn curfew was implemented for a second night on Monday in

Colombo, the capital. And major social media and messaging services, including
Facebook and WhatsApp, have been blocked by the government to try to curb the
spread of misinformation.

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Relatives unloading the coffin on Monday of Sneha Savindi, 12, who was killed in a suicide bombing at St.
Sebastian’s Church in Negombo. Adam Dean for The New York Times

Death toll rises to 290

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The number killed was lifted significantly overnight, to 290, the police said on
Monday, adding that about 500 people had also been wounded in the attacks on sites
across the country.

The Sri Lankan tourism minister, John Amaratunga, said that at least 39 foreigners
were among the dead. Those countries that have confirmed their citizens were killed
include Australia, Britain, China, Japan, Portugal and the United States.

Ruwan Gunasekera, a police spokesman, would not reveal how many people had
been killed at each location.

The identities of the victims have started to emerge. These are their stories.

More explosions rocked parts of the country on Monday, and while no new casualties
were reported, the blasts racked already strained nerves.

In one case, it appeared that a bomb detonated while the police were trying to defuse
or move it, near one of the churches that was hit on Sunday. Smaller blasts were
reported that may have resulted from the police intentionally detonating suspicious
packages.

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This advisory sent by a police official alerted security

officials about a threat to churches from a radical Islamist
group, National Thowheeth Jama’ath. Government officials
have blamed the attack on the group.

A warning went unheeded

Ten days before the bombings, a top Sri Lankan police official warned the security
services that a radical Islamist group was planning suicide attacks against churches,
but no action was taken against the group. It was unclear what other precautions, if
any, the security agencies had taken in response to the threat warnings.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Sunday that neither he nor his cabinet
ministers had been informed of the warning, highlighting the power struggle
between him and President Maithripala Sirisena, who is also the defense minister.
Late last year, the feud led, for a time, to there being two officials claiming to be the
rightful prime minister.

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The apparent intelligence failure and the breakdown of communication within the
government are likely to prompt political recriminations and attract attention in
investigations into the attacks.

At a news conference on Monday, the health minister, Rajitha Senaratne, said there
had been a warning as early as April 4, reiterating that the prime minister and his
allies had been “completely blind on the situation.” He noted the lack of cooperation
within the government, saying that when the prime minister attempted recently to
call a security council meeting, members of the panel refused to attend.

An April 11 letter from the police official not only named the group believed to be
planning an attack, National Thowheeth Jama’ath, but also named individual
members, and even gave addresses where they could be found.

The information was supplied by “foreign intelligence,” the letter said, but it did not
specify from which country or countries.

“We must look into why adequate precautions were not taken,” Mr. Wickremesinghe
said on Sunday.

[Look at images from the devastation of the Easter Sunday attacks, and see how the
country is mourning.]

Who are National Thowheeth Jama’ath?

Officials on Monday said a little-known Islamist group that promotes a terrorist
ideology in South Asia was responsible for the attacks.

The group, National Thowheeth Jama’ath, had a reputation for vandalizing Buddhist
statues but little history of carrying out terrorist attacks.

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Rajitha Senaratne, the health minister, called the group “a local organization” and
said the suicide bombers appeared to be Sri Lankan citizens. “All are locals,” he said
at a news conference on Monday.

But, he added, “there was an international network without which these attacks
could not have succeeded.”

In a news release, Mr. Sirisena, the president, said that, according to Sri Lanka’s
intelligence agencies, “there are international terrorist organizations behind these
incidents.”

No one has publicly claimed responsibility for the bombings.

A forensic analysis of body parts found at six sites determined that seven suicide
bombers conducted attacks at three churches and three hotels, according to The
Associated Press. Most attacks were carried out by single bombers, but two men
targeted the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo. Two other bombings at a guesthouse and
at the suspects’ apparent safe house remain under investigation.

Sri Lanka does not have much history of Islamist terrorism. The country is
predominantly Buddhist, with significant Hindu, Muslim and Christian minorities.

From 1983 to 2009, separatists from the Tamil ethnic group, which is mostly Hindu,
fought a civil war against the government, dominated by the Sinhalese ethnic
majority, most of whom are Buddhist.

[Read more about the radical group accused of carrying out the bombings in Sri
Lanka.]

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Two men inspect damage from the roof of a restaurant at the Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo on Monday.
Jewel Samad/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

U.S. warns of additional attacks

The State Department said that terrorist groups “continue plotting possible attacks
in Sri Lanka” and raised its travel advisory to warn visitors to the country about
potential threats.

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It said terrorists could attack “with little or no warning,” and listed several potential
targets, including tourist spots, transportation centers, markets, malls, government
offices, hotels and places of worship.

The travel advisory level was raised to “exercise increased caution,” the second-
lowest of four levels. It had previously been at the lowest level, “exercise normal
precautions.”

The advisory gave no specific details about any groups that could be planning
attacks or about who might be responsible for Sunday’s violence.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia also raised its advisory
level and urged travelers on Monday to “reconsider your need” to go to Sri Lanka.

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Personal belongings at St. Sebastian’s Church on Monday. Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters

Government responds with a curfew, a social media blackout,

and more
Sri Lankan officials took a series of extraordinary steps in an effort to keep control of
their shaken country, aiming to prevent further extremist attacks and retaliatory
violence.

Mr. Sirisena, the president, said the government had given additional powers to the
police and security forces to detain and interrogate people, and for the second day in
a row, a curfew was imposed, from 8 p.m. until 4 a.m.

The government temporarily blocked several networks, including Facebook and

Instagram. Users also reported being unable to access the messaging services
WhatsApp and Viber.

Though Sunday’s attacks have no known link to social media, Sri Lanka has a
troubled history with violence incited on the platforms. The ban was an
extraordinary step that reflected growing global concerns about social media.

Mr. Sirisena appointed a three-person panel to investigate the bombings, headed by

a Supreme Court justice, Vijith Malalgoda.

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The president also directed the authorities to increase security around churches and
other potential targets.

Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar in 2017. Adam Dean for The New York Times

Religious persecution and conflict rise in Asia

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The bombings in Sri Lanka underlined the rise of intolerance and violence across the
region, based at least partly on religion and often feeding on government rhetoric.

Perhaps the worst example has been the persecution in Myanmar of the Rohingya
Muslim minority by the government and by members of the Buddhist majority,
especially since 2016. Thousands of Rohingya have died and hundreds of thousands
have fled their homes.

In Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and elsewhere, politicians have

increasingly made appeals to sectarian resentment, and tolerated their political
allies’ calls for violence.

On Easter Sunday in 2016, a suicide bomber killed more than 70 people in a busy
park in Lahore, Pakistan. A splinter group of the Taliban claimed responsibility,
saying it had specifically targeted Christians.

Last May, suicide bombers struck three churches in Surabaya, Indonesia, killing 28
people, and in January, two bombs ripped through a cathedral in the Philippines,
leaving 20 dead. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for both attacks.

Reporting was contributed by Russell Goldman, Austin Ramzy and Sandra E. Garcia.

For more breaking news and in-depth reporting, follow @nytimesworld on Twitter.

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