Sri Lanka police arrest at least 23 people in connection with spate of attacks on Muslim-owned homes and shops
Sri Lankan soldiers patrol a road of Hettipola on top of an armoured vehicle, after a mob attack in a mosque in the nearby village of Kottampitiya, Sri Lanka, May 14, 2019. Sri Lankan police arrested 23 suspects on Tuesday in connection with a spate of attacks on Muslim-owned homes and shops in apparent reprisal for the Easter bombings by militants.
A nationwide night curfew was relaxed in all areas except the North Western Province where a Muslim man was killed by a mob on Monday, police said, in a violent backlash against last month's bombings. The Sri Lankan government said on Monday it was temporarily blocking some social media networks and messaging apps, including Facebook and WhatsApp, after violent incidents in the wake of Easter bombings by militants.
The army chief said he expects the country to return to normal within days and wants the military to head back to their barracks soon. The Sri Lankan government on Friday ordered mosques to clamp down on extremists and to submit copies of sermons in new fallout from the Easter suicide bombings that left 258 dead.
It's been just over two weeks since a group of Sri Lankan militants carried out suicide bombings at churches full of people celebrating Easter services and at luxury hotels. Police have accounted for every individual involved in the April 21 attacks on three churches and three luxury hotels, Wickramaratne said in an audio statement.
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. Police found bullet holes in the wall on one side of the grounds, as well as long tubes suspected of holding bombs, the officer said.Sri Lanka Catholics celebrate Mass via TV
A senior police officer said the restrictions were imposed to prevent an escalation of violence after attacks occurred in Negombo – north of Colombo – where over 100 people died in a church bombing. They warned that the final number of dead from the April 21 attacks on three churches and three Colombo hotels would rise further.
"On the advice of the security forces, we have decided not to have Sunday masses in any of the churches," the spokesman told AFP.Foreign mastermind may be behind bombings – President Sirisena "There could be another wave of attacks," the head of ministerial security division , a unit of the police, said in a letter to lawmakers and other officials, seen by Reuters on Monday.
Tourist arrivals in areas outside Colombo will go down by about 30 percent over the next two months following the bombings, he added. "The ban is to ensure national security... No one should obscure their faces to make identification difficult," the statement said. Police believe that Hashim, the alleged mastermind of the Easter Sunday attacks, led the group or a splinter faction to mount the attacks in Colombo as well as a church in Batticaloa in the eastThe father and two brothers of the suspected mastermind of Sri Lanka's Easter Sunday bombings were killed when security forces stormed their safe house two days ago, police sources and a relative of the suicide bombers told Reuters on Sunday.
From teenagers to elderly men and women, to parents carrying their children in their arms, the crowd gradually swelled, as worshippers came out on to the streets to mourn. At the tightly-guarded Roman Catholic Archbishop's residence in Colombo, Ranjith condemned the attacks as "an insult to humanity", in a private mass that was broadcast live on the country's television channels.
The violence came six days after the Easter Day bombings on three churches and three luxury hotels which killed at least 253 people and injured 500. The police managed to break into the group's communications and began tapping into the plot for what would become the bloodiest attack, Sahni said."They knew the group, they knew the targets, they knew the time, they knew the whereabouts of the suicide bombers, and all of this was communicated to the Sri Lankan government."
The gun battle between troops and suspected militants erupted on Friday evening in Sainthamaruthu in Ampara, to the south of the town of Batticaloa, site of one of the Easter Sunday blasts at luxury hotels and churches.The 15 were found in the morning during clearance operations.
During one search operation, authorities found a stock of explosives and other raw materials used to manufacture bombs. The US has also warned Americans to avoid places of worship in Sri Lanka due to potential for more attacks. At 12:10 pm local time, the call to prayer echoed through the Masjidus Salam Jumma Masjid mosque in the capital Colombo.
A local extremist group leader believed to have played a key role in Sri Lanka's deadly Easter bombings led an attack against a Colombo hotel, the country's president confirmed on Friday.
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