The Sri Lankan government has been working with at least five foreign countries to determine if there was any “foreign” involvement in the 2019 Easter bombings, the deadliest attack Sri Lanka had seen in a decade time. The serial bombing left 269 killed. 

“We have to probe whether there was any foreign hand behind the attacks,” G.L. Peiris, Sri Lankan education minister said in parliament, according to a report in Daily Mirror. 

“Even the dreaded LTTE could not set off bombs in the eight locations within hours. Those who did it would have planned for years before launching such heinous attacks,” he claimed. 

LTTE, a defunct Tamil ethnic armed separatist group in Sri Lanka, had waged an armed insurgency for almost three decades in the island nation. The group was infamous for its suicide bombing attacks. 

LTTE attempted over 200 suicide missions, killing many high-profile targets, including a sitting Sri Lankan President (Ranasinghe Premadasa), and a former Indian Prime Minister (Rajiv Gandhi). 

Peiris, speaking in parliament, also said we needed to determine there was any political hand in getting the 60 swords released from custom. 

It is more important to ensure that there won’t be any similar attacks in the future in Sri Lanka, the minister said. After the Eastern bombings, the Sri Lankan government has managed to extradite around 50 people, he claimed, adding the actions have been taken against all these people.  

Just weeks back, a presidential inquiry commission, appointed to investigate the bombings, submitted its report to the government. It has made several recommendations, including a ban on the propagation of Wahabism in the country and banning unregistered Islamic seminaries.