Months after a series of bomb blasts took place in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, the police revealed that they have arrested more than 200 suspects and have frozen the bank accounts of more than 100 suspects
Colombo: The Sri Lankan Police, on Thursday (September 5) said that 293 suspects had been arrested in connection with the Easter Sunday bombings in the country in April.
Police spokesperson Ruwan Gunasekera said that 115 suspects are in remand custody while 178 others are held for questioning, Anadolu News Agency reported.
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Speaking to Anadolu News Agency, the police spokesperson said, "Moves were also underway to freeze 6 billion Sri Lankan rupees worth of assets belonging to the suspects."
The spokesperson further said that the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) collected the data about these assets and steps would be taken to freeze them in future, adding that more than 100 bank accounts of 41 suspects are already frozen.
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On April 21, 2019, multiple blasts ripped through Sri Lanka while the Christian community was celebrating Easter Sunday. The explosions rattled the churches and high-end hotels across the country, killing more than 200 people and injuring over 500.
A local terror group called National Thowheeth Jama'ath had claimed responsibility for the devastating attacks.
From April to August, Sri Lanka was put under a state of emergency.
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The attack had left the island's tourism sector devastated. Tour operators cancelled advance bookings due to security fears, and the government was forced to offer concessions for its revival.
Politically too, the attacks caused a stir and led to the sacking of the then police chief and the then top bureaucrat at the defence ministry who were charged with negligence as they had failed to prevent attacks despite prior intelligence.
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