Security shake-up in Sri Lanka as attack toll rises to 359, bodies of 5 Indians sent back

The death toll now stands at 359.

Lankan authorities today sent the bodies of five of the 11 Indians killed the serial blasts in the island nation on Easter Sunday.

Among the dead were activists of the Janata Dal (Secular), who were taking a break from the gruelling national elections in India. Eight were from Karnataka. A total of 39 foreign nationals were killed in the bombings.

A special flight was arranged from Kempegowda International Airport in Colombo, to airlift the mortal remains, deputy secretary state protocol Vijay Mahantesh said here on Wednesday.

The bodies of Kachana Halli Govindappa Hanumantharayappa, Kachana Halli Munibyrappa Lakshminarayana, Muniyappa Rangappa and Hanumaiah Shivakumar arrived at Karnataka in the early hours of Wednesday. The body of Shettipalya Ramakrishnappa Nagaraj reached last night at 2000 hrs.

The bodies of Ramesh, Adakamaranahalli Mare Gowda and Harokyatanahalli Puttaraju are expected to arrive today.

Grievously injured Purushotham who arrived by Air Ambulance from Colombo on Wednesday, was immediately shifted to Manipal Hospital in Karnataka.

The deaths of Narayan Chandrashekhar and Remurai Tulasi Ram have been confirmed but more details are awaited, according to official sources.

Woman suicide bomber

Sri Lanka deputy defence minister told media here on Wednesday that out of the nine suicide bombers, who carried out massive blasts across country on Easter, one was a woman.

Her identity has not been ascertained yet.

Sri Lanka police confirmed that nine suicide bombers were involved in the blasts out of which eight have been identified. The extensive detention and search across the island nation is still continuing with police arresting 18 more people. Out of the 60 detained, one is Syrian.

According to a report, one of the bombers once studied in the UK.

He studied there in the mid-2000s and did not complete a full university degree, the report added.

Security shake-up

President Maithripala Sirisena has asked for the resignations of the defence secretary and national police chief, his office said Wednesday.

Lankan state minister of defence Ruwan Wijewardena here on Wednesday said that the attacks were carried out not by the National Thowheed Jamath terror group, as previously stated, but by a splinter group.

On Monday, Sri Lankan officials accused the NTJ, a little-known Islamist extremist group, of being responsible for the devastating series of coordinated bombings.

However, on Tuesday, the Islamic State terrorist group reportedly said it was behind the attacks.

Mr Sirisena said he would take stern action against officials who failed to heed and act on warnings from intelligence agencies from a friendly neighbouring country about the threat of an attack.

"The information received from the state intelligence agencies of that country was not passed on to me by relevant officials. If they had done so, I would have taken immediate action. I have decided to take strict action against those who failed in their duty," he said.

However, Bangladesh’s anti-militancy drives have ruled out extremist groups’ capacity to the extent that they are no longer capable of launching large-scale attacks, the counter-terrorism unit chief of the police Bangladesh said.

United against terror

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in Wellington said on Wednesday that the nation and France will work with technology companies to crack down terrorism and extremism on social media.

The act came in the wake of the March 15 terrorist attack in New Zealand city of Christchurch which claimed at least 50 lives.

Ms Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron will co-chair the meeting in Paris on May 15, which aims to see world leaders and CEOs of tech companies agree on a pledge called the Christchurch Call to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online.