Possible intel failures to be examined in Sri Lanka blasts
Colombo: Police in Sri Lanka said Monday the investigation into the Easter Sunday bombings will examine reports that the intelligence community failed to detect or warn of possible suicide attacks before the violence.
The nine bombings of churches, luxury hotels and other sites was Sri Lanka's deadliest violence since a devastating civil war in the South Asian island nation ended a decade ago.
Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said Monday the death toll had risen overnight to 290 dead with more than 500 wounded.
Two government ministers have alluded to intelligence failures.
Telecommunications Minister Harin Fernando tweeted, "Some intelligence officers were aware of this incidence. Therefore there was a delay in action. Serious action needs to be taken as to why this warning was ignored."
He said his father had heard of the possibility of an attack as well and had warned him not to enter popular churches.
And Mano Ganeshan, the minister for national integration, said the security officers within his ministry had been warned by their division about the possibility two suicide bombers would target politicians.
Gunasekara said the Criminal Investigation Department investigating the blasts will look into the reports.
Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardena previously described the blasts as a terrorist attack by religious extremists, and police said 13 suspects were arrested, though there was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Wijewardena said most of the bombings were believed to have been suicide attacks.
The explosions mostly in or around Colombo, the capital collapsed ceilings and blew out windows, killing worshippers and hotel guests in one scene after another of smoke, soot, blood, broken glass, screams and wailing alarms.
Victims were carried out of blood-spattered pews.
"People were being dragged out," said Bhanuka Harischandra, of Colombo, a 24-year-old founder of a tech marketing company who was going to the Shangri-La Hotel for a meeting when it was bombed.
"People didn't know what was going on. It was panic mode." He added: "There was blood everywhere."
Most of those killed were Sri Lankans. But the three bombed hotels and one of the churches, St. Anthony's Shrine, are frequented by foreign tourists, and Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry said the bodies of at least 27 foreigners from a variety of countries were recovered.
The US said "several" Americans were among the dead, while Britain, India, China, Japan and Portugal said they, too, lost citizens.
The streets were largely deserted Monday morning, with most shops closed and a heavy deployment of soldiers and police. Stunned clergy and onlookers gathered at St. Anthony's Shrine, looking past the soldiers to the stricken church.
The Sri Lankan government lifted a curfew that had been imposed during the night.
But most social media remained blocked Monday after officials said they needed to curtail the spread of false information and ease tension in the country of about 21 million people.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he feared the massacre could trigger instability in Sri Lanka, and he vowed to "vest all necessary powers with the defence forces" to take action against those responsible.
The Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, called on Sri Lanka's government to "mercilessly" punish those responsible "because only animals can behave like that."
The scale of the bloodshed recalled the worst days of Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war, in which the Tamil Tigers, a rebel group from the ethnic Tamil minority, sought independence from the Buddhist-majority country.
The Tamils are Hindu, Muslim and Christian.
Sri Lanka, off the southern tip of India, is about 70 per cent Buddhist. Scattered incidents of anti-Christian harassment have occurred in recent years, but nothing on the scale of what happened Sunday.
There is also no history of violent Muslim militants in Sri Lanka.
Two Muslim groups in Sri Lanka condemned the church attacks, as did countries around the world, and Pope Francis expressed condolences at the end of his traditional Easter Sunday blessing in Rome.
"I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence," Francis said.
Six nearly simultaneous blasts took place in the morning at the shrine and the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels in Colombo, as well as at two churches outside Colombo, according to a Sri Lankan military spokesman, Brig. Sumith Atapattu.
A few hours later, two more blasts occurred just outside Colombo, one of them at a guesthouse, where two people were killed, the other near an overpass, Atapattu said.
Also, three police officers were killed during a search at a suspected safe house on the outskirts of Colombo when its occupants apparently detonated explosives to prevent arrest, authorities said.
The Shangri-La's second-floor restaurant was gutted, with the ceiling and windows blown out. Loose wires hung down and tables were overturned in the blackened space.
From outside the police cordon, three bodies could be seen covered in white sheets.
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National Herald case: Shivakumar to seek time next week to appear before Delhi police
New Delhi/Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Monday said he will ask for time from Delhi police to appear before them next week, to provide required information as part of the probe into the National Herald case.
He said he will seek time after the ongoing winter session of Karnataka legislature ends on December 19. He will also ask the Delhi police to provide him the FIR copy.
Shivakumar, who is in the national capital, had earlier said that he will appear before the Delhi police on Monday. But, he postponed the plan in order to rush back to Karnataka to participate in the last rites of veteran Congress leader Shamanuru Shivashankarappa, scheduled later in the day in Davangere.
"I had to go (to appear before the Delhi police), but I have to go back urgently. I'm asking them for time, stating that I will come next week," Shivakumar told reporters in New Delhi.
"They (Delhi police) have not attached the FIR copy while issuing notice to me. I need FIR copy, because we had already given all the required replies to the ED. I don't know what the FIR says, I only read in papers. They have given notice, I will ask for a FIR copy. I will come next week after the Assembly session."
The Delhi Police had issued a notice to Shivakumar, who is also the Karnataka Congress chief, seeking financial and transactional details as part of its probe into the National Herald case.
The notice issued by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) states that Shivakumar is "supposed to be having vital information" pertaining to the National Herald case registered on October 3 this year, against top Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
In the notice dated November 29, the EOW had asked Shivakumar to appear before it or provide the requested information by December 19 latest.
Investigators have sought details about his personal background, his association with the Congress party, and a complete break up of funds allegedly transferred by him or associated entities to Young Indian.
To a question on meeting AICC General Secretaries K C Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala, amid the ongoing power tussle between him and CM Siddaramaiah over the Chief Minister post, Shivakumar said when he comes to Delhi, he usually meets every one.
"Whether it is Surjewala or Kharge (AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge) or Venugopal, I will meet everyone. During lunch yesterday I met Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. I have met everyone. What's wrong?" he asked.
Shivakumar was in Delhi to take part in Congress' "Vote Chori" rally on Sunday, and had also participated in the lunch organised by the party for its leaders.
Responding to a question, whether any meeting is planned with leaders today, the Deputy CM said, he and Kharge will be travelling together to Karnataka, to pay last respects to Shamanuru Shivashankarappa.
Asked if he will seek time for a separate meeting with Congress leadership including Rahul Gandhi, during the next visit to Delhi, Sivakumar said, "such things will be there between us in the party.... you don't worry."
