Sri Lanka serial blasts: President Sirisena to announce nationwide emergency from midnight
Sri Lankan military officials
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena will be announcing a nationwide emergency from midnight on Monday following Easter Day blasts. The development comes soon after the Sri Lankan authorities lifted a curfew in the country on Monday and another night-time curfew was imposed.
Meanwhile, the government has lent credence to a controversial letter saying local outfit National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) is believed to be responsible for the Easter Sunday bomb attacks in the country.
The bomb attacks were carried out with the help of an international network, cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said on Monday.
"We do not believe these attacks were carried out by a group of people who were confined to this country," Senaratne said. "There was an international network without which these attacks could not have succeeded."
A senior investigator said that seven suicide bombers took part in the devastating attacks on churches and luxury hotels that killed 290 people and wounded more than 500.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Sunday acknowledged that the "information was there" about possible attacks, news agency AFP reported.
Wickremesinghe added that the government's first priority would be to "apprehend the terrorists and ensure that terrorism does not lift its head in Sri Lanka."
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"While this goes, on we must also look into why adequate precautions were not taken," he said.
The Sri Lankan police on Monday arrested 24 people in connection with the serial blasts. An improvised pipe bomb was discovered close to Colombo's main airport and was successfully defused by the Sri Lanka airforce, the police said.
As many as 290 people were killed and about 500 wounded by a string of bombings that tore through churches and luxury hotels on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka. The attacks are been billed as the worst-ever in the history of the island nation after the civil war that ended almost a decade ago.
(With inputs from agencies)