Case overview
On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches in Sri Lanka and three luxury hotels in the commercial capital, Colombo, were targeted in a series of coordinated IS-related terrorist suicide bombings. A total of 269 people were killed, with over 200 of them being Christians, including at least 45 foreign nationals, three police officers, and nine suicide bombers. [1]
On 12 January 2023, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka ruled that the then-incumbent president Maithripala Sirisena and several other government authorities at the time failed to act on intelligence, and were ordered to pay compensation to victims. TID pre-bombing investigation It was later claimed that the Police Terrorism Investigations Division (TID) has been investigating the activities of the chief suspect Zahran, with an arrest warrant issued by the Colombo Magistrate's Court in August 2018 based on a 'B' report dated 2 July 2018 which the TID had submitted. [2]
