Saudi arrests 2 for links to Lanka bombing plotter on Indian intelligence

Saudi Arabia is learnt to have arrested Maulana Rila, brother-in-law of the Islamic State inspired Shangri-La hotel bomber Zahran Hashim, and a colleague of his, who just goes by the name Shahnawaj, last week on the basis of inputs from Indian intelligence. Hashim was the leader of National Towheed Jama’at and chief radicaliser of the hardline salafi group responsible for the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka. India is believed to have provided several warnings on the attacks, including time- and location-specific details, which were ignored by Sri Lanka.

Officers in Indian security agencies say they are already in touch with their Saudi Arabian counterparts to find out on any links between the IS cadres responsible for the Sri Lanka attacks and Kasargode (Kerala)-Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) module in India, with Colombo on the verge of sending a team to Saudi Arabia.

For the record, Indian intelligence alerted Sri Lankan police and security agencies on April 4, 10, 16 (the day the device was tested in a motorcycle), 20 and two hours before the multiple suicide bombings on April 21, the last with the names of three churches under imminent bombing threat.

After the Easter Day bombing, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale is believed to have called up the top-brass of the Tata owned Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) to ask them to install security scanners and metal detectors at their three properties in Sri Lanka because all the suicide bombers are still not accounted for. The IHCL owned Taj Samudra had a lucky escape on April 21 as UK educated suicide bomber Abdul Latif Mohammed Jamil entered the hotel but could not trigger the device. He later died in a blast at the Tropical Inn in Dehiwala suburb with a couple also losing their lives in the blast.

For the record, Indian intelligence alerted Sri Lankan police and security agencies on April 4, 10, 16 (the day the device was tested in a motorcycle), 20 and two hours before the multiple suicide bombings on April 21, the last with the names of three churches under imminent bombing threat.

Source: HT