7 suicide bombers involved in Lanka blasts; 24 arrested as toll rises to 290
Colombo, Apr 22: Seven suicide bombers were involved in a series of eight devastating blasts that tore through churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing 290 people and wounding 500 others in the worst terror attack in the country's history, authorities said on Monday.
The blasts targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in Negombo and Zeon Church in Batticaloa when the Easter Sunday mass were in progress. Three explosions were reported from the five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury.
No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday's attacks, but police have so far arrested 24 people and declined to give further details.
"The attacks which had taken place at the Shangri-La, Kingsbury, and Cinnamon Grand hotels and also at St Anthony's Church in Kotahena, St. Sebastians Church in Katuwapitiya, and the Zeon Church in Batticaloa have been identified as suicide bombings," the Government Analyst's Department was quoted as saying by the Sunday Times.
Hours after the six blasts, a seventh explosion rocked Colombo on Sunday.
When a police team entered a house in the Colombo north suburb of Orugodawatta to conduct a search Sunday, a suicide bomber blew himself up causing a concrete floor of a two-storey building to crash on them, killing three policemen in the eighth blast.
"A total of seven suicide bombers had carried out these explosions," the department said.
Over 290 people, including six Indians, were killed in the blasts that left more than 500 others injured, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.
Gunasekera said 24 suspects have been arrested so far and they have been transferred into the custody of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) for further investigations.
The government has said it will not disclose the details of the suspects involved in the attacks to prevent them from getting publicity.
"Don't give extremists a voice. Don't help to make them martyrs," State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene told reporters when asked for details of those in custody.
Media reports said that there was prior intelligence warning that the National Thowheeth Jama'ath - a radical Muslim group - was planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches in Colombo.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said that an investigation must be launched as to why intelligence reports of the attack was not taken seriously.
President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed a three-member committee to conduct investigations.
Supreme court judge Vijith Malalgoda, former IGP N.K. Ilangakoon and Former Law & Order Ministry Secretary Padamasiri Jayamanne have been appointed as members of the committee.
The committee has been instructed to submit a report on the Easter explosions within two weeks to the President.
Meanwhile, police said the driver of the van which had carried explosives to carry out bomb attacks at the three hotels was arrested.
A safe house where the bombers had lived for nearly three months leading to the attacks was found in the south of Colombo suburb of Panadura.
Sri Lanka Air Force said it found an improvised explosives device along a road leading to the departure terminal at the Colombo international airport Sunday night.
"It was a crude six-foot pipe bomb that was found by the roadside," an air force spokesman said.
"We have removed it and safely defused it at an air force location," he added.
On Sunday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj identified three Indians as Lakshmi, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh who died in the blasts.
"Indian High Commission in Colombo has conveyed that National Hospital has informed them about the death of three Indian nationals," she tweeted.
"We sadly confirm the deaths of the following two individuals in the blasts yesterday, K G Hanumantharayappa and M Rangappa," the Indian High Commission in Colombo tweeted.
On Sunday, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan identified a Keralite, P S Rasina (58), among those killed in the blasts.
Four of them died in the Colombo National Hospital while the bodies of two Indians who succumbed to their injuries from the blast at the Shangri-La Hotel has been sent for autopsy, the National Hospital spokesperson said.
Sri Lanka on Monday lifted the curfew which was indefinitely imposed with immediate effect after the eight blasts.
The blasts - the deadliest attacks in the country's history shattered a decade of peace in the island nation since the end of the brutal civil war with the LTTE.
The civil war ended with the defeat of the Tamil Tigers, who had fought for 26 years for an independent homeland for the minority ethnic Tamils. The war is thought to have killed between 70,000 and 80,000 people.
The nation has seen some sporadic violence since. In March 2018, a state of emergency was declared after members of the majority Buddhist Sinhala community attacked mosques and Muslim-owned properties.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Bangladesh High Court refuses to ban ISKCON
Dhaka, Nov 28: Bangladesh High Court Thursday rejected a petition seeking a ban on ISKCON's activities in the country, days after a lawyer was killed in a clash between security personnel and supporters of a Hindu leader, previously linked to the religious group.
A lawyer had sought a ban on the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) after placing some newspaper reports related to the organisation on Wednesday.
"The two-member High Court bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Debashish Roy Chowdhury on Thursday declined to ban the ISKCON activities in Bangladesh," a spokesman of the attorney general's office said.
He said the bench made the decision after the attorney general's office submitted a report on the action taken by the government regarding the death of assistant government prosecutor Saiful Islam Alif in the northeastern port city of Chattogram earlier this week.
Hindu leader Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachary, arrested earlier this week, was sent to jail by a Chattogram court on sedition charges, sparking a violent protest during which advocate Alif was killed. Chinmoy was earlier expelled from ISKCON.
"Right at this moment, the situation does not warrant the intervention of the (High) court as the State is carrying out its job (regarding the matter),” Justice Mahbub was quoted as saying by the spokesman.
The decision came a day after Attorney-General Mohammad Asaduzzaman urged the court not to take any decisions on the ISKCON issue as the government has started taking the required action.
Additional Attorney General Aneek R Haque and Deputy Attorney General Asad Uddin informed the bench that three separate cases have been filed in connection with the murder of the lawyer and ISKCON's activities, and 33 accused have been arrested in these cases.
The bench then hoped that the government would remain cautious about protecting the law and order situation and the lives and properties of the people of Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, ISKCON Bangladesh refuted allegations linking the organisation to the lawyer's killing, saying the claims were baseless and part of a malicious campaign.
"A series of false, fabricated, and malicious campaigns is being spearheaded targeting ISKCON Bangladesh, particularly in connection with recent events. These efforts are aimed at discrediting our organisation and creating societal unrest," general secretary of the organization Charu Chandra Das Brahmachari said.
Speaking at a press conference at the organisation’s head office, he said ISKCON Bangladesh was never involved in "communal or conflict-driven activities and will continue to promote unity and harmony".
"We have already clarified the matter multiple times through press conferences and official communications with the government and administrative authorities. Regrettably, certain groups continue to deliberately spread false propaganda against our organisation and make unreasonable demands, such as banning ISKCON," Das said.
He said that Chinmoy was previously expelled from the organisation along with two others for violating its rules and none of their activities were connected to ISKCON.
ISKCON Bangladesh President Satya Ranjan Baroi also spoke at the press conference, saying their organisation was dedicated to communal harmony, religious tolerance, and the welfare of humanity and “the allegations are an attempt to tarnish our religious and social reputation".
Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum on Thursday staged a protest in front of the Supreme Court Bar, protesting the lawyer's killing and demanding the ban on ISKCON.
The group is regarded as the lawyers’ wing of ex-premier Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
Leaders of the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement, which led the mass upheaval to oust deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s regime on August 5, also demanded the ban on ISKCON.
Separately, a group of Supreme Court lawyers sent a legal notice to the Bangladesh government on Wednesday seeking the ban on ISKCON describing it as a “radical organisation.”
India on Tuesday noted with “deep concern” Chinmoy's arrest and denial of bail and urged Dhaka to ensure the safety and security of Hindus and all other minority groups.
Earlier, the ISKCON had urged the Bangladesh authorities to promote "peaceful coexistence" for Hindus in the country as it "strongly" denounced the arrest of the Hindu leader.
Chinmoy, the spokesperson for Bangladesh Sammilita Sanatani Jagran Jote, was arrested from Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Monday as he was about to fly to Chattogram to join a rally.
He was denied bail and sent to jail by the Chattogram’s Sixth Metropolitan Magistrate court in a sedition case on Tuesday.
