Easter attacks: weapons training camp in Sampur and organization linked to terrorists uncovered
April 29, 2020 06:49 pm
Sri Lanka Police says that investigations into the Easter Sunday terror attacks have uncovered a location in Sampur which had been used by the terrorists to carry out weapons training while a certain organization in Puttalam linked to the attackers has also been uncovered.
Investigations pertaining to the Easter Sunday attacks are progressing successfully on a new direction, Police Media Spokesman SP Jaliya Senaratne told reporters in Colombo today (29).
Last week investigations had uncovered information regarding a location in the Sampur area which had been used by the terrorists for weapons training, he revealed.
He stated that the information was uncovered from a suspect who is currently in the custody of the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) under detention orders and also through other investigations carried out by the TID.
He stated that a suspect who is currently in custody had directed the investigative officers to the said location last week and that according to the information uncovered thus far it is believed that this place had been used to provide weapons training to a number of individuals.
This includes basic weapons training such as dismantling, cleaning and reassembling firearms while this camp had also been used to train them on firing various types of firearms and issuing guidelines.
He said that further investigations are ongoing with regard to the information uncovered.
In addition to this, information has also been uncovered regarding a certain organization which had operated out of Puttalam, the police spokesman said.
He said that the organization in question had enrolled certain individuals and held sermons for them regarding extremism while also showing them various videos related to that.
The spokesman said that even Zahran Hashim, the ringleader behind the Easter attacks, had visited the location and held sermons for these individuals and showed them videos containing extremist religious ideologies.
He said that several other suicide bombers had also visited this location and held sermons spreading extremist ideologies with the intention of getting them involved to assist the further continuation for their operations.
He said that several suspects have been arrested in connection with this organization and that their involvement has been confirmed. Further investigations with regard to that are also ongoing, Senaratne said.
