Colombo: Muslim brothers carried out two of the hotel suicide blasts Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka, part of a wave of bombings that killed more than 320 people, police sources told this agency, Tuesday. The sources, however, did not reveal the names of the two.
The brothers, sons of a wealthy Colombo spice trader, blew themselves up as guests queued for breakfast at the Shangri-La and Cinnamon Grand hotels in the Sri Lankan capital here, the source said. The sources also said that a fourth hotel was targetted in the string of bombings, but the attack failed.
The brothers were in their late twenties and operated their own ‘family cell’, an investigation officer said. The pair was key members of the Islamist National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) which the government has blamed for the attacks, the official added.
Official sources told this agency that an attack had been planned at a fourth hotel. A bomber had checked into the hotel a day before the attack and given his address. He was at the site Sunday, but did not detonate his explosives. It was not clear if they failed or he decided against detonating them for some reason.
But after the Shangri-la blast, staff at the unnamed hotel became suspicious and the man was tracked to a lodge near the capital. He blew himself up there when confronted by police, killing two bystanders.