A view of St. Sebastian's Church damaged in blast in Negombo, north of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, April 21, 2019. More than hundred were killed and hundreds more hospitalized with injuries from eight blasts that rocked churches and hotels in and just outside of Sri Lanka's capital on Easter Sunday, officials said, the worst violence to hit the South Asian country since its civil war ended a decade ago. (AP Photo/Chamila Karunarathne)
(COLOMBO) – The brother-in-law of the master mind behind the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings was arrested in Eastern Sri Lanka on Thursday night, police said on Friday.
The man identified only as Niyaz has been established to be the brother of the bomber’s wife and was picked up from a safe house from the pre-dominant Muslim town of Kattankudi some 328 kilometres from the commercial capital of Colombo.
The suspect, along with the others were at a game of cards when they were taken by surprise following a tip-off to the local police, they said.
Zahran Hashim was the ringleader of the breakaway members of the hard-line Islamist group National Thowheed Jama’ath (NTJ), and accused of carrying out coordinated suicide bombings on April 21, 2019 which killed more than 350 people and maimed an equal number or more including a large number of foreigners.
Zahran Hashim blew himself to bits and killed dozens of others in a suicide attack carried out on the up market Shan gri la hotel in the heart of Colombo.
The home grown jihadist group targeted Christian churches and up market hotels on that fateful Easter Sunday.
