They confirmed that the jihadist who led the attacks in Sri Lanka had died during one of the attacks

The Sri Lankan extremist Zahran Hashim, considered a key player in the Islamist attacks on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka, died while committing the attack in one of the luxury hotels of ColomboFriday announced President Maithripala Sirisena.

"What the intelligence services have learned, is that Zahran died during the attack on Shangri La" Sunday morning, the Sri Lankan president told the press.

Zahran Hashim led the attack against this hotel facing the sea of ​​the capital with a second suicide bomber, identified as "Ilham," said the head of state.

Zahran Hashim appeared in a video published by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS). What called for these attacks, which killed 253 people, in which he was seen leading seven men in an oath of allegiance to the head of the IS, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

(Alleged Allegiance on the Islamic State of Terrorists in Sri Lanka)

It is unclear where he is since the suicide bombings perpetrated Sunday against churches and luxury hotels on the tourist island of Southeast Asia. and the authorities have actively sought him.

Zahran Hashim ethe head of the National thowheeth jama ath (NTJ), local extremist group little known until Sunday and to which the government of Sri Lanka accuses of having committed the attacks.

Maithripala Sirisena He also said the authorities had detected the presence on the island of at least 130 people suspected of having links with jihadist group Islamic Stateor (EI), and added that They arrested 70 of them.

"I will eradicate IE from Sri Lanka, our police and our security forces are able to achieve it", He said while announcing that the island nation would accept the help of other countries to fight the jihadist group.

With regard to the responsibilities related to the failure to deal with information intelligence shared with the Sri Lankan authorities about a possible attack, the President promised measures against officers guilty of negligence and He promised a "complete" restructuring of the security organs.

He warned against a close relationship between extremism and drug trafficking a plague against which his government has taken several controversial measures in recent months.

The series of attacks that took place almost simultaneously Sunday in three luxury hotels and three churches in Colombo and other cities of the country were perpetrated by at least nine kamikazes loaded with powerful explosives.

Hours later, a seventh detonation took place in a small hotel located about ten kilometers south of the capital, and the last one in a residential complex, also in Colombo.

Authorities yesterday reduced to 253 the number of deaths in the series of attacks, about a hundred less than previously reported, a decrease explained by the difficulty of counting the amputated limbs.

In Sri Lanka, the Christian population accounts for 7.4%, Buddhists 70.2%, Hindus 12.6% and Muslims 9.7%, according to the 2011 census.

Interreligious tensions on the island have been common in the past, with even community clashes and the proclamation of state emergency in the country to control the violence.

However, Attacks of this magnitude have not occurred in Sri Lanka since the civil war between the Tamil guerrillas and the government. A conflict that lasted 26 years and ended in 2009, has caused, according to UN data, more than 40,000 civilians.

(With information from AFP and EFE)