Sri Lanka investigates Easter bombings

India relayed three specific warnings about possible terror attacks to Sri Lanka, ahead of the Easter Sunday bombings. The final warning was communicated just one hour before the explosions started, a person with knowledge of the information told CNN.

The first warning was communicated on April 4; the second warning was sent on April 20, one day before the attacks; and a third warning was sent on the morning of the attack.

The warnings specified that churches and hotels could be among the targets, the person said.

Sri Lankan officials have acknowledged that their country received intelligence about possible terror strikes ahead of the Easter Sunday attacks, but both the President and Prime Minister have said that they did not receive the information.

Reyyaz Salley, chairman of the Shaikh Usman Waliyullah mosque, told CNN that he had repeatedly attempted to warn the government about radical preachers in Sri Lanka, including Zahran Hashim, the alleged mastermind of the attacks. 

"They started to attack Sufi mosques and shrines (in 2010)," he said. 

In February 2019, Salley sent police and intelligence officials videos that Hashim made, which Salley considered promoting jihad. He urged them to act upon it.

"People have been brainwashed. He was talking about jihad. These are all very dangerous messages for the country," he says.

"If the authorities had taken our advice this could have been prevented.”

A high-level intelligence official in Sri Lanka tells CNN that National Tawheed Jamath (NTJ) was planning a second wave of attacks across Sri Lanka.

NTJ has been named as the perpetrators by the Sri Lankan government, but it has not claimed the attacks.

In a statement published by the ISIS-affiliated news agency Amaq, the terror group said Sunday's attackers were "fighters of the Islamic State," but its involvement in the attacks has not been proven.

The information was discovered in intelligence operations since Sunday’s explosions, according to the official.

Some of the attackers in Sunday's deadly bombings had previously been arrested, a government official said Wednesday.

State Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardene told journalists at a press conference,"Some of them, in earlier incidents, had been taken into custody (following) small skirmishes, but nothing of this magnitude," he said.

The neighbor of one bombing suspect in capital city Colombo said that the people who lived in the house under investigation were "very reserved" and didn't interact with the community.

“They were very reserved. They don’t come out to play, they don’t come out, you know, to have a chat," Pamuditha Anjana told CNN.

"In this community we get together, everyone. Like every night, we eat on the road, we talk about stuff like what we have, what are you doing, what’s up, that is all.

"So these guys they never came out. They were very keeping things to themselves.”

Nine suicide bombers took part in the Easter Sunday bombings, Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) confirmed today. Out of the nine, eight have been identified by CID, Police Spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said.

The ninth bomber was confirmed as the wife of one of the suicide bombers.

Around 60 people have been arrested for possible links to the multiple attacks carried out on Easter Sunday. Of them, 32 are in custody with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). All of those arrested are of Sri Lankan nationality, officials said at a press conference today.

Over 100 people were killed in a blast on Easter Sunday at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, a city to the north of the capital Colombo.

So far, 31 of those have been buried in a new cemetery prepared for the victims so far, and a further 25 more are expected to be interred today.

The church's priest is urging people to leave quickly after their loved ones are buried due to security fears around large groups gathering.

Speaking at a press conference today, Sri Lanka's State Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardene revealed that the majority of Sunday's suicide bombers were from well-heeled families. They were also well-educated, including at least university graduate who had studied abroad.

"Most of them are well-educated, and come from maybe middle- or upper-middle-class. So they are financially quite independent and their families are quite stable financially," .

He added, "We believe that one of the suicide bombers studied in the UK and maybe later on did his post-graduate in Australia, before coming back to settle in Sri Lanka."