Sri Lanka’s president orders two top national security officials to step down after the Easter attacks that killed 359
By Joanna Slater and Joanna Slater Foreign correspondent covering South Asia Email Bio Follow Amantha Perera April 24 at 7:20 AM Sirisena asked the country’s police chief and defense secretary to step down amid a growing furor surrounding the government’s failure to act on intelligence warning of possible attacks on churches by an obscure Islamist extremist group.
Sixty people have been arrested in connection with the attacks on churches and hotels, including Mohamed Ibrahim, a wealthy businessman who imported spices and owned the home in Colombo’s Dematagoda neighborhood where the police conducted a raid on Sunday. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attacks, but Sri Lankan authorities said its role remains unclear. Wijewardene said there was a connection to the Islamic State “through ideology and maybe funding,” but the latter is still under investigation.Wijewardene said Sri Lanka’s intelligence agencies assessed that deadly attacks last month on mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, “motivated these people to carry it out on Easter Sunday.
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