A viral video that has been doing rounds on the internet showed one of the suicide bombers patting a little girl's head before he walked into the St Sebastian's Catholic Church in Negombo on the western coast of Sri Lanka.
The incident was recorded on a CCTV camera installed in the vicinity. The bearded man is seen with a big backpack walking calmly towards the church. On his way there, he encountered a little girl with an adult. As he walks by her, he gives her a pat on her head and continues going towards the fated church.
#WATCH Colombo: CCTV footage of suspected suicide bomber (carrying a backpack) walking into St Sebastian church on Easter Sunday. #SriLankaBombings (Video courtesy- Siyatha TV) pic.twitter.com/YAe089D72h
— ANI (@ANI) April 23, 2019
Another CCTV footage inside the St Sebastian's Church shows the man making his way into the church, walking past many Easter worshippers who are standing outside the hall. The terrorist then walks to the altar where the bomb will detonate moments later, killing multiple innocent people.
According to reports, at least 100 people were in the church when the bomb went off.
A series of blasts targeting churches and high-end hotels rocked Sri Lanka on April 22, Sunday, killing 320 people and injuring more than 500. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack and said that this was revenge for the New Zealand mosque shooting which claimed the lives of 50 Muslim worshippers. ISIS said, "This bloody day is our reward to you." ISIS' news agency al-Amaq, released the video claiming responsibility for the attack on its channel through the Telegram app.
Initially, it was thought that the National Tawheed Jamaat, a Sri Lankan jihadi group was behind the attack.
However, intelligence believed that even if the group did carry out the attack, they could do so with external assistance.
