With Sri Lanka still reeling in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday terror attacks, the government has frozen the bank accounts of 41 terror suspects. The suspects are mainly those with alleged links to the National Thowheed Jam'aath, which was behind the suicide blasts on April 21. The blasts had killed over 250 people and injured more than 500. The blasts targeted churches and high-end hotels across the country.
PTI reports that the 41 bank accounts have a total of $759,000 while $79,333 was seized from the possession of the alleged terrorists during the time of their arrest.
Ruwan Gunasekara, the Sri Lanka Police spokesman, was quoted as saying by Time Online that the 41 suspects are in the custody of the Terrorist Investigations department as well as the Criminal Investigations Department.
The CID is also looking into the assets of the suspects which amount to USD 30 million.
A state of emergency was imposed on the island nation of Sri Lanka since April 23 and the president, Maithripala Sirisena, extended by another month on Wednesday.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria claimed responsibility for the attack but the country has not let the NTJ due to its alleged links to the ISIS. The attack's mastermind, Zahran Hashim found dead in a hotel after the suicide blasts. Hashim was a key operative of the NTJ as well.
Two days after the bombings, the ISIS, through its news agency al-Amaq, claimed responsibility for the attack saying that it was revenge for the mosque shooting which took place in New Zealand in March. They said that the bombings were a "bloody gift to you".
