Sri Lanka: Islamic State has claimed the attacks and the authorities say it was "retaliation" for the attacks in New Zealand – 23/04/2019

The terrorist group ISIS took responsibility for the series of suicide bombings in Sri Lanka on Tuesday against churches and luxury hotels that caused the death of more than 320 people Sunday, in a statement sent to the agency Amaq, close to the militia, whose authenticity could not be verified.

In the message, the terrorist group stated that the 18 April chain of attacks was perpetrated by "Fighters of the Islamic State (ISIS)".

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The Sri Lankan authorities, for their part, consider that Sunday's attacks were in "retaliation" for attacks on mosques in New Zealand, weeks ago.

Sri Lanka's Secretary of State for Defense and Minister Ruwan Wijewardene said the Easter Sunday mbadacre was a revenge for the attacks that claimed the lives of 50 people in two mosques in Christchurch, 15 of them. March.

Already at that time, the Islamic State had threatened a bloodbath for attacks in New Zealand. And he spoke of a "Crusaders war" and attacks against churches.

"We believe that they were perpetrated by an extremist Islamist group in retaliation for the mbadacre perpetrated in mosques in New Zealand," Wijewardene said during a hearing in the Parliament of Ceylon on Tuesday.

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"This group is known to have contacts with an organization called National thowheed jamath. We should take immediate steps to ban this organization, which has links with extremist elements, "he said without naming ISIS.

The spokesman also called on the Sri Lankan government to ban "immediately" and to clbadify the national group Thowheed Jamath as a terrorist organization and badured that neither he nor the country's prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, would Had been summoned to meetings of the National Security Council. since October 2018.

The Sri Lankan prime minister stressed that Muslims should be united in rejecting the Easter Sunday attacks. "All those who are against this attack must be united," he said.

He also called for international support in the fight against terrorism and said the country should not be in a new conflict. "We must take advantage of the international support we have received to eliminate terrorism in the country," he added. "We will not let the country enter another 30 years of conflict."

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Former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa criticized the government's handling of the terrorist threat and accused it of underestimating the risk run by the country. "Sri Lanka has become an easy target for terrorists because the government was chasing down intelligence agents," he told parliament before denouncing the fact that the government ignored the warnings of the intelligence services on the risk of attacks.

Terrorist women

The Daily Mirror newspaper reported that the executive may be studying the possibility of banning the use of the burqa and niqab, two Islamic veils completely covering the woman's body.

The government, according to this newspaper, would study the imposition of this measure after having verified by testimonies and evidence gathered by researchers. the high number of women who participated in the chain of attacks Sunday of the resurrection.

An official of the Sri Lankan government said that the executive had considered the possibility of banning both clothes with mosque officials and discussed it with the country's president, Maithripala Sirisena.

In considering this measure, the government would have taken into account the fact that the burqa and the niqab are no longer traditional clothing in Sri Lanka before the early 90s, with the Gulf War, an increase in Extremism introduces the use of both clothes for Muslim women.

Ministry of Defense sources said several of the accomplices of the terrorists who attacked Dematagoda escaped from the scene of the burkah-dressed events.

Already more than 320 dead

This Tuesday, the heavenly government has increased to 321 dead and more than 500 wounded the record of Sunday Resurrection attacks.

Among the victims of Sunday's chain of attacks include 45 childrenChristophe Boulierac, spokesperson for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said in Geneva. The youngest of the children who died in the town of Batticaloa had 18 months

In total, 521 people were injured during the attacks and are still hospitalized in several hospitals in Colombo, the main city of the country, where the most serious attack on a Catholic church occurred.

The Sri Lankan Ministry of Health said that there were 41 bodies waiting to be identified in several hospitals.

Source: dpa and Europa Press

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