Members of a radical Muslim group have been identified as suspects in a series of Easter suicide bombings on churches and luxury hotels across Sri Lanka.
"What's ironic is this particular report was not considered with the cabinet or mentioned to the cabinet, and this looms a huge doubt on why and how this lapse actually happened," Fernando said.
The explosions unfolded Sunday when at least seven suicide bombers detonated devices inside three Christian churches packed with people celebrating Easter services as well as three hotels popular among Western tourists, officials said. There were eight simultaneous explosions around 8:45 a.m. local time.
St. Anthony's Shrine, a Catholic church in Colombo, and Zion Church in Batticaloa were also attacked. Colombo is on the western side of Sri Lanka, while Batticaloa is on the eastern shore, about 200 miles from the capital. Akshat Saraf, 30, a financial adviser from India, said in an interview Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America" that he and his family were vacationing in Sri Lanka and staying at the Shangri-La Hotel when a blast on in a third-floor restaurant shook their room on the 25th floor.
"My wife and I just grabbed our passports and decided to evacuated. At that point, the hotel did not announce the evacuation alarms," Saraf said on GMA. "We decided to take the emergency exit and climb down 25 floors, and when we reached the third or fourth floor was when we could see there was blood on the stairs and we thought something has definitely happened in this building.
A Sri Lankan Air Force spokesman confirmed to ABC News that a suspicious van booby trapped with gas cylinders was detected outside St. Anthony's Shrine in Colombo Monday and was promptly disposed of in a controlled explosion by Sri Lanka Air Force's Explosive Ordnance Disposal team. On Sunday night, a large pipe bomb was found on a road leading to the international airport in Colombo and was disposed.
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