Sri Lanka bombings: Tamil medium teacher among 106 suspects held
Colombo: A total of 106 suspects, including a Tamil medium teacher and a school principal, have been arrested in Sri Lanka in connection with the Easter Sunday blasts, police said Sunday, even as the Islamic State claimed the three militants who blew themselves up during a raid in the Eastern province were its members.
As the country marked a week since the coordinated blasts hit three churches and three luxury hotels, killing 253 people and injuring over 500 others, police and security forces continued their hunt for members of the National Thowheeth Jamaath (NTJ), the local terror outfit behind the attack.
The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) is carrying out the interrogation of the 106 suspects, Colombo Page reported.
The arrested people include a 40-year-old Tamil medium school teacher who was found in possession of 50 SIM cards and other incriminating items, the report said.
He was held following a joint operation conducted by the Kalpitiya Police and the Navy. In a special joint operation conducted by the Army and police in Vavuniya town, 10 suspects were arrested.
On a tip-off, main roads were blocked and search operations carried out for nearly three hours. Security has also been stepped-up in the area.
Meanwhile, two suspects were arrested in Damgedara area in Galle during a search conducted on information received of a school managed by the NTJ.
One of the suspects is the principal of the school and the other is a doctor who has served as an instructor. The Galle police are conducting further investigations.
Sri Lanka on Saturday banned the NTJ and a splinter group linked to the ISIS.
On Friday, six children and three women were among 15 people killed when militants linked to the Easter Sunday bombings opened fire and blew themselves up during a fierce gun battle with security forces in Eastern province.
A huge cache of explosives was also recovered from the spot.
The Islamic State terror group, in a statement published early Sunday through the its propaganda 'Amaq' news agency, claimed that the three militants who blew themselves up during the fierce gun battle were its members.
At the security council meeting on Friday, it was decided that search operations to crackdown on extremist terrorism must continue until the threat is completely eliminated.
Security has been improved at hotels, schools and public places.
Nine suicide bombers carried out a series of devastating blasts that tore through three churches and three luxury hotels on the Easter Sunday, killing 253 people.
The Islamic State claimed the attacks, but the government has blamed local extremist group NTJ for the attacks.
President Maithripala Sirisena said Friday that over 130 suspects linked to the Islamic State terror group have been operating in the country.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka needs new laws to deal with threats posed by local terror outfits linked to ISIS.
According to Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry, the number of foreign nationals who have been identified as killed remained at 40, including 11 from India.
Sri Lanka has a population of 21 million which is a patchwork of ethnicities and religions, dominated by the Sinhalese Buddhist majority.
Muslims account for 10 per cent of the population and are the second-largest minority after Hindus. Around seven per cent of Sri Lankans are Christians.
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Seven killed in B'luru govt hospital wall collapse, CM orders probe
Bengaluru (PTI): Seven people, including a child, were killed and seven others injured when the compound wall of the city's Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital collapsed due to heavy rains here on Wednesday, police said.
Officials had initially said three children were killed, but the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) later clarified that only a six-year old girl was among the deceased.
The victims included those from Kerala, and had come here as part of a study tour.
When heavy rains, coupled with strong winds and a hailstorm, battered the area, victims taking shelter near a wall were trapped when it suddenly collapsed. Seven people were killed on the spot.
Police and emergency services personnel rushed to the spot with an earthmover to bring out the bodies and the injured from the debris with the help of other citizens.
Learning about the incident, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah visited the spot along with the Greater Bengaluru Authority Chief Commissioner M Maheshwar Rao and Bengaluru Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh to take stock of the situation.
Siddaramaiah took the GBA officials to task for the tragedy.
Briefing reporters after the spot inspection, the chief minister said, "Seven people have died....seven people are injured. All of them are stable. They are all out of danger. I have told the doctors to provide treatment free of cost."
"Rs 5 lakh solatium will be given to the kin of each deceased. Because, unfortunately, those who died are very poor people — traders, street vendors," he added.
Siddaramaiah said an inquiry will be conducted to find out why the wall collapsed.
"We will conduct an inquiry to see whether the engineers are at fault. If they are found responsible, action will be taken against them immediately," he said.
According to the CM, there was civil work going on inside the compound wall. The contractor was dumping soil against the compound wall.
He said that due to the pressure of soil dumped against it, the wall might have collapsed.
"Prima facie, it appears to have fallen due to that pressure. So I have asked the engineers — the Executive Engineer and Assistant Executive Engineer — whether they had checked if it had become weak or not," Siddaramaiah said.
No one knew there would be heavy and untimely rains, the CM said, adding that these were pre-monsoon rains.
Deputy CM and Minister in charge of Bengaluru, D K Shivakumar, who was in Kanakapura in Bengaluru South district, rushed to the city and visited the spot for inspection.
Speaking to reporters, he said some people took shelter against the wall as the rain started, due to which they died.
"I am deeply pained to learn about this incident. Such things should not have happened. Many trees have fallen, and vehicles were damaged. I will direct officials to cut the weak trees because there was a risk of such tragedies happening again during the monsoon".
According to him, four people from Kerala were affected, of whom two were killed in this tragedy.
"We will conduct the postmortem at the earliest and send the bodies to Kerala," Shivakumar said.
Officials in Kerala's Ernakulam said two members of Kudumbashree, Smitha and Latha, died in the wall collapse. They were natives of Ramamangalam in Ernakulam.
The Kudumbashree group had gone there as part of a study tour.
Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, R Ashoka, said the loss of innocent lives—children, street vendors and pedestrians who had sought shelter from the rain—is not just a natural calamity or accident; "it is a state-sponsored disaster born out of sheer administrative negligence."
"How many more lives must be sacrificed at the altar of poor infrastructure and civic apathy? While the Congress government indulges in tall claims of 'Brand Bengaluru,' the crumbling walls of a premier government hospital in the heart of the city tell a different, more lethal story. For this Congress Government, it seems the lives of the poor and the common man are disposable," he posted on 'X'.
BJP's State President B Y Vijayendra asked the Congress government in Karnataka to take responsibility for the incident, urging them to provide treatment to the injured and compensation to the families of the deceased.
