Category: Local News

The Government should place more trust in the country’s Armed Forces and the Police, rather than bringing foreign investigators to aid in the Easter Sunday attacks investigations, Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa said yesterday (1).

The murder of Chief Incumbent of Mapalagama Vidyathilaka Pirivena Ven. Mapalagama Gunasiri Thero is neither a racist act nor has it any links to the terror attacks on Easter Sunday, Minister of Internal & Home Affairs and Provincial Councils & Local Government Vajira Abeywardena said, issuing a statement.

Police yesterday released the identities of the nine suicide bombers involved in the Easter Sunday attacks, and said that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was taking steps to freeze the assets of those identified as being involved.

More than 60 persons were arrested yesterday along with a large number of weapons, the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) propaganda material and clothes similar to military uniform during search operations carried out by Police, STF and the tri-forces in several parts of the country, according to the Army and the Police.

Cable operators in Sri Lanka have also reportedly blocked controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik’s Peace TV, following the deadly bomb blasts on Easter Sunday which killed at least 250 people.

United People’s Freedom Alliance Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa accuses the present administration of playing politics over the present crisis in the country.

Human Rights Watch has called for the Sri Lankan government to take all necessary steps to ensure the safety of South Asian refugees and asylum seekers from violence.

Saudi Arabia advised its nationals to leave Sri Lanka, Al-Ekhbariya state TV reported on Tuesday, citing the Kingdom’s embassy in Colombo.

“Terrorists can strike anywhere and the recent terror incidents in New Zealand and Sri Lanka have proved this,” said Maninderjeet Singh Bitta, a leading anti-terror expert in India.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna District MP M.A. Sumanthiran on Monday (April 29) alleges that the Easter Sunday carnage was a result of Sri Lanka’s failure to ensure certain basic values.

The Special Task Force (STF) yesterday (30) raided Eastern Province Governor A.L.M. Hizbullah’s Kattankudi office where they found 35 Type 56 bullets, which the Governor claims belong to the Police security officers working for him.

Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church said public masses will resume Sunday under tight security, two weeks after Easter bombings claimed by the Islamic State group killed 253 people at three churches and three luxury hotels.

The Colombo Archbishop, His Eminence Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith says that he rejected the new vehicle which was offered for his use when he came to know that it was bullet-proof.

Sri Lankan intelligence services believe the Easter Sunday suicide bombers had “very clear” links to ISIS, the country’s president told CNN Monday.

President Maithripala Sirisena has instructed the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) Director General to lift the social media ban with immediate effect, the Government Information Department said today.

Out of curiosity, the writer looked at the website of the Police Department to find out to what extent the department was making use of information technology (IT) in its affairs, and was glad to find that a separate IT division has indeed been set up in the department as early as 1980