Sri Lankan attack in retaliation to NZ

Sri Lanka’s worst terror attack targeting churches and luxury hotels on Easter Sunday was carried out by local Islamic extremists in retaliation for the mosque shootings in New Zealand, a senior minister informed Parliament on Tuesday, citing results of the initial probe.

Addressing an emergency session of Parliament to discuss Sunday’s attacks, Sri Lanka’s state minister of defence Ruwan Wijewardene said the early findings of the ongoing probe found that the suicide bombings were in revenge for the March 15 deadly attacks at two mosques in Christchurch which left 50 people dead.

According to an intelligence memo sent to some government officials before the attack, a member of the Islamic extremist group blamed for the Sri Lanka attacks had posted ‘extremist content’ on social media after the Christchurch shootings were carried out by a right-wing extremist, Wijewardene said.

The government has blamed National Thowfeek Jamaath (NTJ) after seven suicide bombers struck three churches and three hotels.

“The preliminary investigations have revealed that what happened in Sri Lanka (on Sunday) was in retaliation for the attack against Muslims in Christchurch,” Wijewardene told parliament.

Wijewardene has proposed banning the NTJ.

The suicide bombers were all Sri Lankan citizens but the group is believed to have links with foreign terrorist networks.