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Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday bombings were retaliation for a recent attack on mosques in New Zealand, the country’s state minister of defence said on Tuesday.
“The preliminary investigations have revealed that what happened in Sri Lanka (on Sunday) was in retaliation for the attack against Muslims in Christchurch,” Ruwan Wijewardene told parliament.
Fifty people were killed in shooting attacks on two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch on March 15.
A little-known Muslim organisation, National Thawheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), has been linked to the worst attacks on the Indian Ocean nation since its civil war ended a decade ago.
Wijewardene said that along with NTJ, another local group, Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim (JMI) was also believed to be involved in the attacks.
“It was done by National Thawheed Jama’ut along with JMI,” he said.
At least 40 people have been arrested in connection with the attacks and a state of emergency has been imposed as authorities aimed to maintain security during investigations into the bombings.
Wijewardene said immediate steps should be taken to ban such organisations and called for all suspects to be apprehended.
A prominent Muslim organisation in Sri Lanka said all perpetrators should be brought to book, adding that it was ready to assist the victims of the blasts.
“We do not have information to make a comment about that [the accusations]. But as a community, we should have some introspection and see how these groups have come into being,” NM Ameen, the president of Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, said.
“From what we know, it is a small radicalised Muslim organisation that has caused these devastations. We do not have enough information to say it has global links,” Ameen told Al Jazeera.
National day of mourning
On Tuesday, Sri Lanka began a national day of mourning with three minutes of silence for the victims.
More than 500 people have been wounded including 375 who are still being treated in hospital.
The first mass burial for the victims of bombings that struck churches and luxury hotels took place in Colombo on Tuesday.
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| Sri Lankans pray during a three minute nationwide silence observe to pay homage to the victims of Easter Sunday’s blasts outside St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo [Eranga Jayawardena/AP Photo] |
Mourners and relatives of the victims brought flowers to the memorial service and prayed with the clergy as coffins were being carried in and out of the church.
The deputy defence minister’s statement comes a day after Rajitha Senaratne, the health minister and Cabinet spokesman, blamed President Maithripala Sirisena’s government for failing to act on intelligence shared weeks before the multiple blasts.
Senaratne also hinted at a possible role of an international network in the Easter Sunday attacks.
“We don’t see that only a small organisation in this country can do all that,” Senaratne said of the devastation. “We are now investigating international support for them and their other links – how they produced the suicide bombers and bombs like this.”
No group has claimed responsibility for the carnage so far.
Two leading Muslim groups issued statements condemning the attacks, with the All Ceylon Jamiyaathuul Ulama, a council of Muslim theologians, urging the “maximum punishment for everyone involved in these dastardly acts”.
‘Worrying development’
Analysts said the targeting of churches and hotels where foreign tourists stay in Sri Lanka was a “new and worrying development” in the predominantly Buddhist country.
A senior Asian counter-terrorism official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters news agency the attack was likely carried out by a group with “significant operational capability and skilled commanders”.
Four of the bombs went off at roughly the same time at 8.45am, with two others coming within 20 minutes.
Two other explosions rocked Colombo in the afternoon. Authorities later found unexploded devices and a van full of explosives in various locations.
The violence was the worst the country has witnessed since the 26-year civil war between ethnic Tamil separatist rebels and government forces ended in 2009, when deadly bomb blasts were common in Colombo and other cities.
There were fears the attacks could spark a renewal of communal violence, with police also reporting late on Sunday there had been a petrol bomb attack on a mosque in the northwest and arson attacks on two shops owned by Muslims in the west.
Christians, Muslims and Hindus form nearly one-quarter of the island’s 23 million population.
Additional reporting by Dilrukshi Handunnetti from Colombo
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