24 hours after the eight explosions across multiple locations in Sri Lanka, the death toll rose to 290. Over 500 people have been injured in blasts reported from eight different locations spread across three cities in Sri Lanka in the most violent attack in the country since the end of the country's civil war in 2009. Several foreign tourists were killed in the blasts, including five Indian nationals as confirmed by the High Commission of India in Sri Lanka.
24 people have been arrested in connection with the blasts, which the Sri Lankan government has stated was carried out by a local outfit, National Thowheed Jamath.
Addressing the media on Monday, Rajitha Senaratne, the Sri Lankan Minister for Health and Indigenous Medicine, who was responding to a reporter question, said, “National Thowheed Jamath was involved. It is a local organisation, we don't know whether they are linked to outsiders. All those arrested are locals.”
The minister spoke of the Intel notice that was reported out by news agency AFP on Sunday; the agency said that it had seen documents containing a tip-off by the police to top intelligent officials about possible attacks on churches. Two Sri Lankan ministers, Mano Ganesan and Harin Fernando, had also stated on Twitter that the government had prior information about an impending attack. However, reports had quoted Sri Lankan police officials stating that they were not aware of such an intelligence report.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has declared an emergency in the country from Monday midnight and has re-imposed a curfew from 8 pm on April 22 to 4 am on April 23.
Here are the live updates:
(Note: If the live blog is not loading, please disable your ad blocker)