Sri Lanka police chief resigns over bombings: Sirisena
Sri Lanka police chief Pujith Jayasundara
Sri Lanka's police chief, Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara has resigned on Friday over failures that led to terror attacks which targeted the churches and hotels in the capital city.
"The IGP has resigned. He has sent his resignation to the acting defence secretary. I'll nominate a new IGP soon," President Maithripala Sirisena told reporters.
Sri Lanka's defence secretary, Hemasiri Fernando also resigned on Thursday.
Fernando said that while there had been no failure on his own part, he was taking responsibility for failures of some institutions he headed as the secretary of defence.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena had earlier asked the police chief and defence secretary to quit following the attacks.
Meanwhile, the authorities on Thursday revised the death toll to 253, from the previous figure of 359, explaining that some of the badly mutilated bodies had been double-counted.