Islamic Extremist Hashim behind the Easter bombings in Shri Lanka – President Maithripala Sirisena
Shri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena confirmed that an Islamic extremist played a key role behind the Easter Bombings in Shri Lanka who died in an attack on Colombo Hotel.
The group that unleashed Sunday’s attacks on Sri Lanka included nine suicide bombers who detonated explosives in churches, hotels and inside the home belonging to the family, authorities said. Their leader was a man named Zahran Hashim, who was believed to be in his 40s and expounded extremist views in online sermons. Authorities said the group’s leader carried out a suicide attack on Colombo’s Shangri-La Hotel.
President of Shri Lanka told reporters, referring to the Islamic extremist “What intelligence agencies have told me is that Zahran was killed during the Shangri-La attack.” Since the government named the group he led as the National Thowheeth Jama’ath, security was on a hunt for Hashim believed to be around 40.
The bombers were a radical splinter group that broke off from a local Islamist militant outfit called National Thowheed Jamaath, said Ruwan Wijewardene, Sri Lanka’s junior defense minister. He was a relative unknown before the attacks, though local Muslim leaders say they had reported him on more than one occasion to authorities for his extremist views and behavior.
The Shri Lanka’s Defense Minister had said that most of the Shri Lanka Suicide bombers were ‘well –educated’ and it is believed that one of them studied in the UK.
