Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena urged on Wednesday the terrorist ISIS group to “leave my country alone” as his country continues to reel from a series of deadly Easter Sunday bombings.
He said a foreign mastermind may have planned the attacks and that ISIS may have launched a “new strategy” by targeting smaller countries, Sky New said on Wednesday.
Sri Lankan authorities have previously said that they suspect the attackers had international links, although the precise nature of those connections aren’t known.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Interpol, as well as other undisclosed foreign agencies, are helping Sri Lanka with the probe.
A government source told Reuters on Tuesday police and other security forces across the country had been ordered to remain on high alert because the militants were expected to try to strike again, before the holy month of Ramadan which starts on Monday.
Sri Lanka stepped up security Wednesday as political parties staged low-key May Day commemorations after calling off scheduled rallies following fears more bomb attacks.
Officials said more police were deployed for cordon-and-search operations in many parts of the country, while the military also reinforced road blocks and patrols.
Several roads in the capital were closed as Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe attended a tightly guarded public ceremony marking the 26th anniversary of president Ranasinghe Premadasa assassination.
Officials said police used extraordinary security measures for Sirisena's public appearance to commemorate Premadasa, who was killed by a suicide bomber during a May Day rally in 1993.
Sirisena's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) canceled its May Day celebrations and instead was holding a closed-door meeting with senior stalwarts later in the day, officials said.
Sirisena said authorities were aware of “a small group” of Sri Lankans who had traveled abroad to receive training from ISIS over the past decade.
Investigations revealed the bombs used in the Easter attacks were made locally, the president told Sky News.
Local intelligence officials believe that Zahran Hashim, a Tamil-speaking preacher from the east of the Indian Ocean island country, may have been a key player in plotting the Easter bombings. Officials believe he was one of nine suicide bombers.
The suicide bombings on hotels and churches killed more than 250 people, including 40 foreign nationals.
Police suspect members of two previously little-known groups - National Thawheedh Jamaath and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim - of carrying out the attacks.
Police say they have arrested over 150 people suspected of links to the extremists who carried out the bombings.
Wickremesinghe said Tuesday that some suspects remained at large.
On Monday, ISIS’ media network published a video message purporting to come from its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, which would be his first appearance in five years.
In the video, a bearded man with Baghdadi’s appearance says the Sri Lanka bombings were ISIS’ response to losses in its last territorial stronghold of Baghouz in Syria.
