COLOMBO, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday informed the Parliament that local extremist group "National Towheed Jamaat" was linked to a global terror network.
Wickremesinghe said that following Sunday's deadly attacks search operations were ongoing to nab more suspects who were linked to this group and assured that all steps would be taken to prevent terrorism from raising its head in the island country again.
"This was an attack which had been planned for a long time. There were handlers who were guiding the suicide bombers. Police are working to arrest them. We have to consider these extremists to be a part of a global terror network," the prime minister said.
"We will never allow another war to begin in this country," he added.
State Minister of Defense, Ruwan Wijewardene told Parliament that initial investigations had revealed that Sunday's explosions by the local group was in retaliation to the Christchurch attacks in New Zealand.
He said the "National Tawheed Jamaat" were behind the attacks and further investigations were underway.
The minister expressed his condolences to all the victims and their families including the foreign nationals who had died or got injured in the explosions. He also vowed to arrest all those involved.
Opposition Leader and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa urged all citizens to unite at this hour of grief and offered his condolences to all victims and their families.
According to police, the death toll from a string of explosions that rocked Sri Lanka on Sunday rose to 310 while over 500 were injured.
