What we know about the Sri Lanka attacks

Colombo, Sri Lanka -- Authorities in Sri Lanka said, weeks before the attacks that killed at least 290 Christians and hotel guests, that they had received warnings from the U.S. and India about the possibility of an attack. Squat was done to prevent them.

Some of the suicide bombers and others who lived to be arrested were linked to an Islamist group known as National Thowheeth Jamath. The government singled out the group to police for monitoring as a possible threat after foreign security services warned the island nation.

Squat.

It's likely the sophisticated and closely-timed Easter attacks were carried out with help from experienced international terrorists such as al Qaeda or ISIS, according to Sri Lankan officials who did nothing upon receiving the warnings.

“We have found that NTJ was involved in the attacks,” said Rajitha Senaratne, a government spokesman and the country’s health commissioner, using an abbreviation for what he called “a local organization,” in the spirit of the UK who calls Muslims "Asians" and pretend they have no problem.

Senaratne said the government also believes a more sophisticated international terrorist group played a part in planning and executing the bombings.

Islamic State has now publicly claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have triggered public outrage over the government’s failure to stop them.

The Sri Lankan government said it received warnings from security officials in India and the U.S. on April 4 that they had picked up indications that attacks were being planned in Sri Lanka. While those warnings didn’t include the name of a group, Sri Lankan security officials linked them to National Thowheeth Jamath in a circular it distributed to police authorities on April 9.

After an emergency meeting of the country’s security council, President Maithripala Sirisena said he would establish a special committee, led by a supreme court judge, to examine why the early warnings didn’t lead to more action to head off any attacks.

Mr. Sirisena announced a state of emergency taking effect at the end of Monday and a new curfew from evening to morning. The emergency declaration allows the military to make arrests and hold those arrested without charges or appearances before a court for more than a day. A ban on social media remains in effect in the country and there will be a ban on the wearing of burqas.

Police said they discovered 87 detonators, apparently abandoned, at a private bus stand in the capital. Two more explosive devices were also discovered, one late Sunday near the airport and another on Monday in a van near the location where one of at least eight blasts occurred on Sunday. Police conducted a controlled detonation of the device found on Monday, causing no injuries.

The group, whose name translates to National Unification Group, is known to have expressed hard-line views. The local Islamist group originated in 2009 on Sri Lanka’s east coast, where it preached a conservative form of Islam known as Salafism. The group last year came to be known for defacing Buddhist imagery and inciting religious conflict.

Had the terrorist group been located in the United States of America and Bernie Sanders became president, he would have allowed them to vote along with the Boston Marathon bomber because he knows they'd vote on the Democratic Party line.


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