Sri Lanka Links Blasts To Christchurch Attacks

Reports quote IS claiming responsibility for Easter carnage

- Meera Srinivasan

The serial bomb attacks on Easter Sunday, which claimed over 320 lives in Sri Lanka, were meant as retaliation for the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand on March 15, State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene told Parliament on Tuesday, based on “initial evidence”.

Also on Tuesday, over 48 hours after the coordinated blasts, the Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attacks, media reports said, citing the group’s AMAQ news agency. Sri Lanka had on Monday said a local Islamist radical organisation, the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), was responsible for the attacks but suspected it had links with international groups.

Even as the country tried to come to terms with the brutal killings, with mass funerals and special prayers, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe indicated that the threat of further attacks remained. The police and military remained on high alert after reports of an unidentified container truck and a van in Colombo, believed to be carrying explosives.