An extremist leader at the heart of Sri Lanka’s Easter suicide bombings died in the attacks, the country’s president said Friday as security forces guarded mosques for weekly prayers amid fears of reprisal strikes.
While security forces stepped up a hunt for followers of the Islamic State group, Sri Lanka’s police chief resigned over the intelligence failures exposed by the attacks on three churches and three hotels which left 253 dead.
The government also revealed that the attacks could see tourist arrivals drop by up to 30 percent, with losses of $1.5 billion this year in critical tourism revenues.
President Maithripala Sirisena told reporters that Zahran Hashim, head of a local extremist group, was one of two attackers killed at one of the Colombo luxury hotels hit on Sunday.
“What intelligence agencies have told me is that Zahran was killed during the Shangri-La attack,” he said.
Hashim was accompanied by a second bomber identified as Ilham Ibrahim in the attack, the president said.
Authorities had been desperately searching for for Hashim after naming his group, National Thowheeth Jama’ath, as perpetrators of the attack.
DNA tests on a severed head found in the hotel turned out to be from Hashim, officials said.
Hashim, who founded the NTJ, appeared in a video released by the Islamic State group when it claimed the strikes. He is seen leading seven others in a pledge of allegiance to the IS chief.