The suicide bombers involved in the Easter Sunday carnage had close family connection, Sri Lankan police said Wednesday as it released the details of the attackers and their relatives linked to the country's worst terror attacks.
Police released the details of Mohamed Cassim Mohamed Zahran also known as Zahran Hashmi, who led the team of suicide bombers on Easter Sunday, and his family members involved in the series of coordinated bombings at three churches and three hotels across the country in which over 250 people were killed and 500 injured.
Hashmi, the leader of ISIS linked local outfit National Thowheeth Jamath (NTJ), blew himself up in the posh Shangri-La hotel.
He came from the Muslim majority area in Kathankudi in the eastern province, Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.
His brother Mohamed Nazar Mohamed Azath was the suicide bomber at the Zion church in the eastern town of Batticaloa while his another brother Achchi Mohamed Mohamed Hasthun was the bomber at the St Sebastian's Church at Katuwapitiya, Negombo, the Western coastal town.
Zahran's wife and his daughter have survived the suicide bombings at Sainthamuruthu in the east when the military raided a terrorist safe house. They are undergoing treatment at the Ampara hospital in the east.
Also Read
The NTJ leader's two other brothers and father died in the blast in the safe house during the confrontation with the forces, Gunasekera said.
His driver Adam Lebbe Gaffoor is currently in the custody of the police's crime investigations department. Gaffoor is the father-in-law of one of Zahran's brothers who died in the terror safe house blast.
The St Sebastian's church bomber Hasthun's wife Sarah also died in the blast in the same safe house
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content