NEGOMBO, Sri Lanka — An impatient little girl in a pretty dress pulls on the hand of a man, possibly her grandfather, as they cross a brick courtyard outside St. Sebastian’s Church on Easter Sunday. Some of the attackers reportedly worked out at a local gym ahead of the attacks. ADVERTISEMENTSo how could some of Sri Lanka’s most well-off citizens fall prey to virulent extremism? Police have announced that the attackers got some of their weapons training overseas, and Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said some 140 people in Sri Lanka have been identified as having links to IS. It was only after the 2001 attacks in the United States and the subsequent U.S. invasion of Iraq, he said, that radical preachers began coming to Sri Lanka, often from SaudiArabia and Pakistan, and extremists began more regularly posting online hate.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer April 27, 2019 02:03 UTC