Sri Lanka: Police searching for 140 suspects linked to ISIL

(Patria) – Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena stated that police are searching for 140 individuals believed to be linked to ISIL and the attacks on churches and hotels on Easter Sunday, agencies report.

Sirisena stated that among the suspects are young people involved with this extremist group since 2013. He also publicly criticized police and security agency chiefs for not informing him in time about the warnings they received regarding possible attacks.

He also blamed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's government for weakening the intelligence system by focusing solely on prosecuting military officers for alleged war crimes during the ten-year civil war with Tamil separatists.

The state of emergency in the country, hit by attacks on the Christian minority, has only deepened existing factions within the government, where the president and prime minister do not communicate or cooperate.

Tensions among the population are growing daily – leaders of the Muslim community in Sri Lanka have instructed that, instead of the usual gathering in mosques, Friday prayers should be held at home due to the risk of attacks by Islamist extremists and in solidarity with Catholics whose churches are temporarily closed for security reasons.  

Police have issued a warning to Sufi mosques regarding the threat of attacks by violent fundamentalists who consider Sufism to be 'heresy'.

An official group of Muslim scholars issued a statement advising women not to wear the hijab, i.e., not to cover their faces, explaining that 'in the current situation, our sisters should not hinder security forces in their efforts to maintain national security by covering their faces'.

Two of the nine suicide bombers involved in the attacks on the biggest Christian holiday, Easter, were members of a well-known wealthy family in the capital, Colombo. Brothers Imsath Ahmed Ibrahim and Ilham Ahmed Ibrahim were among the extremists who blew themselves up in the bombing. Their father, Mohamed Ibrahim, a prominent socialite, is the founder of Ishana Exports, which presents itself as 'the largest exporter of spices from Sri Lanka since 2006'.

The Ministry of Health has revised the death toll, which now stands at 253.