Sri Lanka's ex-president Sirisena named suspect in Easter Sunday attacks

A Sri Lankan court on Friday named former president Maithripala Sirisena as a suspect in the 2019 Easter bombings in which 270 people, including 11 Indians, were killed.

The Colombo Fort magistrate's court, which pronounced the judgement, accused Sirisena of neglecting intelligence reports on the impending attack leading to the bombings.

Sirisena, 71, will now have to appear in court on October 14.

The former president was earlier held as responsible for the attack by a probe panel he was forced to appoint following pressure from the Catholic Church and the relatives of the victims.

He had denied the allegation.

On April 21, 2019, nine suicide bombers belonging to the local Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jamaat (NTJ) linked to ISIS carried out a series of blasts that tore through three churches and as many luxury hotels in Sri Lanka, killing 270 people.