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Agence France-Presse

Associated Press

Sri Lanka’s top defence official resigned on Thursday over security failures that led to the deadly Easter bombings, as Catholic churches suspended all services fearing further attacks.
A ministry official said Hemasiri Fernando, Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, had submitted a letter of resignation to President Maithripala Sirisena.
The country’s government has come under increasing pressure over the revelation it failed to act on intelligence about planned attacks, which claimed nearly 360 lives, and Fernando had been widely expected to step down.
“He told the president that he was accepting responsibility and resigning so that the president can make a new appointment,” the ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.




Indian intelligence shared several specific warnings about attacks with Sri Lankan authorities, said an Indian source, but the information was not given to ministers, in what the government has called a “major” lapse.
Investigators are still piecing information together about the attacks and those involved, with officials revealing one attacker had studied in Britain and did postgraduate studies in Australia before returning to Sri Lanka.
Wijewardene said most were “well-educated and come from middle, upper-middle class families, so they are financially quite independent”.
Who is Zahran Hashim, the cleric linked to Sri Lanka bombings?
Police on Thursday released the names and photos of three men and three women wanted for questioning.
Amid the investigation, a northeastern suburb of Colombo has gained some unwelcome notoriety in recent days as the site of a copper factory run by one of the Easter Sunday suicide bombers.




Inshaf Ahmed Ibrahim and his younger brother Ilham Ahmed Ibrahim were believed to have blown themselves up at luxurious Shangri-La and Cinnamon Grand hotels when guests were sitting down for breakfast buffets, as reported by local media.
Factory workers said Inshaf was positively identified when investigators went there on Tuesday and made inquiries.

“We said yes. Then the military informed us that he is dead,” said 30-year-old Bangladeshi worker Mohammad Raju.
According to Reyyaz M Salley, the imam of Shaikh Usman Waliyullah Shrine in Colombo, the two brothers came from one of the city’s wealthiest Muslim families.
Their father Mohamed Ibrahim, who has a successful spice export business in the country, was arrested at the family’s home earlier this week, reportedly on suspicion of aiding and abetting his sons.

Some media have speculated the copper factory was used to build the explosive devices, but its workers denied that possibility.
“The police and military have come here many times to investigate but could not find anything related to explosive material,” said Mohammad Shaddam Shiqdar, 25.
The workers said the factory owner used to visit the factory on a daily basis, but this suddenly changed.
“Our boss stopped coming to the factory seven days before the blasts took place. This was the first time ever that he did not visit the factory for so long,” Shiqdar said.




Experts say the bombings had many of the hallmarks of Islamic State, which has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
An FBI team on the ground is helping Sri Lankan authorities investigate.
Missing breakfast saved us from Sri Lanka bomb, Hong Kong couple says
Among the suspects unaccounted for is NTJ leader Zahran Hashim, who appeared to be among eight people seen in a video released Tuesday by IS after it claimed the attacks.
Officials said it was still unclear whether Hashim was among the suicide attackers or had escaped.
In all, nine people are believed to have blown themselves up on Sunday, either during attacks or when police attempted to arrest them.

Among them were two Muslim brothers, sons of a wealthy Colombo spice trader who is now in custody. The brothers blew themselves up at the Shangri-La and the Cinnamon Grand hotels.
The Kingsbury hotel in the capital was also hit, along with three churches. A fourth attack on a hotel failed, authorities said. The would-be attacker was followed back to a Colombo guest house, where he blew himself up, killing two people.
Sri Lanka bombings: investigators probe global terror links
Two more people – a man and a woman – blew themselves up at another location as security forces launched a raid, killing three police, sources said.
The attack killed at least 45 children, and dozens of foreigners were among the dead, including Britons, Indians and Americans.


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Sri Lanka bombings

Sri Lanka suicide blasts: top Sri Lanka defence official resigns over security failures

Sri Lankan soldiers stand guard at the St Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo on April 25. Photo: AFP

A general view of the Kingsbury Hotel targeted earlier in the day by a blast in Colombo on April 21, 2019. - A series of eight devastating bomb blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on April 21, killing at least 207 people, including dozens of foreigners. (Photo by ISHARA S. KODIKARA / AFP)

Pakistani Christians hold candles during a memorial service for those who were killed in the Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks in Sri Lanka, at Fatima Church in Islamabad, on April 25, 2019. - Sri Lanka's Catholic churches suspended all public services over security fears on April 25, as thousands of troops joined the hunt for suspects in deadly Easter bombings that killed nearly 360 people. (Photo by AAMIR QURESHI / AFP)

(190425) -- COLOMBO, April 25, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Relatives and friends mourn for a blast victim at the Madampitiya Cemetery in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on April 24, 2019. Days after the deadly blasts that hit churches, hotels in Sri Lanka Sunday, families, friends of the over 300 victims have held funerals for their beloved ones. (Xinhua/Wang Shen)

Sri Lanka blast death toll lowered by about 100 as some bodies were ‘double counted’

Sri Lankan soldiers stand guard in the rain at St Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Catholic priests return to St. Sebastian Church after blessing the body of a victim of Easter Sunday's bomb blast in Negombo, Sri Lanka Thursday, April 25, 2019. The U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka warned Thursday that places of worship could be targeted for militant attacks over the coming weekend, as police searched for more suspects in the Islamic State-claimed Easter suicide bombings that killed over 350 people. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

A boy lights a candle after the funeral service of Dhami Brandy, 13, who was killed during Easter Sunday's bomb blast at St. Sebastian Church, in Negombo, Sri Lanka Thursday, April 25, 2019. The U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka warned Thursday that places of worship could be targeted for militant attacks over the coming weekend, as police searched for more suspects in the Islamic State-claimed Easter suicide bombings that killed over 350 people. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

epa07527762 Sri Lankan security personnel check bags in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 25 April 2019. According to police, at least 359 people were killed and hundreds more injured in a coordinated series of blasts during the Easter Sunday service at churches and hotels on 21 April 2019. EPA-EFE/M.A.PUSHPA KUMARA

Sri Lanka bombings: why warning signs of radicalisation went unheeded

Kumari Fernando, who lost her husband and two children, during a mass burial for victims. Photo: Reuters

A priest arranges flowers at the site of a mass burial in Negombo, Sri Lanka, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

Family members mourn for their mother, a victim of the suicide attacks on churches and luxury hotels, at the site of a mass burial in Negombo, Sri Lanka, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

Family members mourn at the funeral of eight-month-old Mathew and his grandmother Agnes Vnikpridha, 69, who died during a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels on Easter Sunday, outside St Sebastian's Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Four more Chinese feared dead in Sri Lanka bombing as search for missing goes on

Sri Lankan Security personnel at the Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Four Chinese were among those killed at the hotel in the Easter attacks. Photo: EPA

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Hemasiri Fernando, Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, submitted a letter of resignation to President Maithripala Sirisena


The Secretary to the Ministry of Defence has resigned as the government comes under increasing pressure over the revelation it failed to act on intelligence about the attacks.
