Colombo (AFP): The Sri Lankan government believes a local Islamist extremist group called the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) is behind the deadly suicide bomb attacks that killed nearly 300 people, government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said Monday (April 22). Senaratne, who is also a cabinet minister, added that the government was investigating whether the group had “international support”. Documents seen by AFP show Sri Lanka’s police chief issued a warning on April 11, saying that a “foreign intelligence agency” had reported NTJ was planning attacks on churches and the Indian high commission. Not much is known about the NTJ, a radical Muslim group that has been linked to the vandalising of Buddhist statues. "The intelligence sections have reported that there are international terror groups that are behind the local terrorists,” the statement said.

Source: The Star April 22, 2019 12:00 UTC