Sri Lanka targets jihadist group | After having been …

Sri Lankan authorities yesterday arrested 24 people for suicide bombings that killed 290 people and injured another 500 on Sunday. Although no group has claimed responsibility for these attacks, the government indicates a local radical Islamist group with possible international links.

The Sri Lankan government spokesman, who identified the national Thowheet Jama & # 39; ath (NTJ) as responsible, said that he did not understand how a small organization in his country could do all this. "We are investigating possible foreign aid and its other links, how they train the suicide bombers, how they made these bombs," he added.

The incrimination of the NTJ is an unusual notoriety for this little-known extremist organization, whose main exploit so far has been the vandalism of Buddhist statues in December. Ten days ago, the police were warned that the group was planning to launch attacks against the churches and the embbady of India in Colombo.

"The intelligence services reported that there were international terrorist groups behind the local terrorists," said President Maithripala Sirisena at a meeting with foreign diplomats, calling for international badistance. So far, the Sri Lankan authorities have announced the arrest of 24 people and said that the FBI and Interpol were already participating in the investigation. The two leading international jihadist organizations, Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) group, have been trying for years to recruit Muslims to the Indian subcontinent, alleging that Muslims in the area were persecuting them.

On Sunday morning, six explosions were recorded in a short time and in the afternoon, two more, in luxury hotels and churches. Yesterday morning, at the morgue of Colombo, the capital, scenes of desolation were lived. "The situation is unprecedented," said a manager who remained anonymous. "We are asking families to provide DNA to help identify some too mutilated bodies," he added.

Janaka Shaktivel, 28 years old and father of an 18-month-old boy, lost his wife in the church of San Antonio. He was saved because he came out on the steps to comfort his crying baby. "I recognized his body because of the alliance he still had," he said, pale and dejected.

Although the state of emergency was proclaimed for reasons of public safety, the people of Colombo, shocked, began gradually to return to the streets of the capital, where security was strengthened.

Imtiaz Ali, a tuk-tuk driver – the motorized tricycles typical of Southeast Asia – lost his nephew in the explosion occurred at Cinnamon Grand Hotel. "The boy was only 23. He was working at the hotel and is expected to get married next week," he said. "We had made all the preparations for the wedding celebration at home, but today it is a place of mourning," he added.

Ranjan Christopher Fernand, a 55-year-old taxi driver who has a friend who lost his 11-year-old son, said, "It's the first time Christians are attacked this way in Sri Lanka." Some 1.2 million Catholics live in this island country, a nation of 21 million inhabitants, 70% of whom are Buddhists. Sri Lanka also has 12% Hindus and 10% Muslims.

Sunday's attacks were a shock to Sri Lankan society, which had not seen so much violence since the end of the civil war 10 years ago. The conflict, which for more than 30 years between the Sinhalese majority and the rebellion of Tamil independence, has claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people between 1972 and 2009, according to UN estimates. However, there is no official government data.