CCTV cameras from the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo had captured a suspicious man in the lobby and an elevator carrying a backpack shortly before the attack.
The jihadist attacks on Sunday April 22 in Sri Lanka left 253 dead. Radical leader Zahran Hashim, who appears in a video calling for the Islamic State, was actively wanted. He was killed in a suicide attack on a large hotel.
Sri Lankan extremist Zahran Hashim, suspected key man in the jihadist Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka , was killed in an attack on one of Colombo’s luxury hotels, President Maithripala Sirisena announced on Friday .
“What the intelligence services told me is that Zahran was killed in the Shangri-La attack” Sunday morning, the Sri Lankan president said during a meeting with the press.
Zahran Hashim carried out the suicide attack against the hotel establishment on the waterfront of the capital with a second suicide bomber, identified as “Ilham” , then said the head of state.
Islamic State video
Zahran Hashim appeared on a video published by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), which claimed responsibility for the attacks which left 253 dead ( a toll largely revised downwards on Thursday ), where he was seen leading seven men in an oath of office. allegiance to ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
His fate since Sunday’s suicide bombings, which targeted churches and luxury hotels on the South Asian island, was so far unknown and authorities were actively seeking him.
Zahran Hashim was the leader of the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), a local extremist group little known until Sunday and which Colombo accuses of carrying out the attacks.
The president also told reporters that young Sri Lankans had been involved in ISIS since 2013 and that senior police and defense ministry officials had not provided him with information about the imminence of ISIS. attacks.
Sri Lankan police are looking for 140 people suspected of having had links with the Islamic State group during the Easter Sunday attacks that killed at least 253 people, President Maithripala Sirisena said on Friday.
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