Sri Lankan security agencies warn of fresh terror attacks

NEW DELHI: Sri Lankan security agencies, including the army, have warned of a new wave of terror attacks in the island nation including a ploy to target bridges in capital Colombo as explosives have been unearthed and key conspirators of Easter Bombings remain untraced so far.

Several conspirators in the Easter Sunday bombings which killed 257 people were still at large, official sources told ET form Colombo. Local police has decided to deploy additional officers in Colombo. Sri Lankan navy has been alerted to checkmate any attack from seas.

Sri Lanka's military has also set up a special command centre to coordinate anti-terror operations, while the army said more troops have been deployed for search operations, one of the sources indicated. “Extensive cordon and search operations of the army and sister services across the country, with assistance of the police, are continuing in search of terrorists, hideouts, explosives, weapons and other war-like items... with the deployment of more and more troops as required,” the army said in a statement.


The authorities had information about a small group of radicals who may be trying to stage more strikes, said health minister and government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne. But the government was also still on the hunt for "four terrorists" involved in the Easter attacks who were still at large, Senaratne told news agency AFP last week.

Three explosive devices and 100 grams of ammonia were found buried near a mosque in Sri Lanka, local media reported.

The ammonia was discovered in the town of Welipenna, 70 kilometers south of Colombo, as police conducted a raid on Friday night, leading Lankan English newspaper Daily Mirror reported Saturday.

Authorities, according to Daily Mirror, revealed that the bombs were locally produced.