Sri Lanka suicide blasts: Islamic extremist group blamed for attack as government admits intelligence failings
- The government received several warnings about a terror attack by the domestic Islamic extremist group National Thowfeek Jamaath (NTJ), but did not act on them
- A minister said the NTJ was believed to have carried out the attacks with the assistance of ‘an international network’
No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts, although the government believed a domestic Islamic militant group called the National Thowfeek Jamaath (NTJ) was behind the bombings with the help of an international terror network.
“We do not believe these attacks were carried out by a group of people who were confined to this country,” Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said. “There was an international network without which these attacks could not have succeeded.”
Police arrested 24 suspects for questioning, but have released few details about the detained over fears of stirring ethnic and religious tensions.
Not much is known about the NTJ, a small extremist group that has been linked to the vandalising of Buddhist statues, although Senaratne admitted the government had failed to heed advice about the NTJ’s terror plans.
