The father and two brothers of the suspected mastermind of
Sri Lanka's Easter Sunday bombings were killed when security forces stormed
their safe house on the east coast two days ago, police and a relative said on
Sunday.
Zainee Hashim, Rilwan Hashim and their father Mohamed
Hashim, who appear in a video circulating on social media calling for all-out
war against non-believers, were among at least 15 killed in a fierce gun battle
with the military on the east coast on Friday.
Kamal Jayanathdhi, the officer in charge at Kalmunai police
station on the east coast, confirmed the three men had died along with a child
that appears in the video, and that the undated clip in which they discuss
martyrdom, had been shot in the same house where the gun battle took place.
Two people who were inside the house, a woman and a
seven-year-old girl believed to be relatives of the men, survived, he said,
while a woman was killed in crossfire on a nearby street.
Niyaz Sharif, the brother-in-law of Zahran Hashim, the
suspected ringleader of the wave of Easter Sunday bombings that killed over 250
people in churches and hotels across the island nation, told Reuters the video
showed Zahran's two brothers and father.
Sri Lanka has been on high alert since the attacks on Easter
Sunday, with nearly 10,000 soldiers deployed across the island to carry out
searches and hunt down members of two local Islamist groups believed to have
carried out the attack.
Authorities have detained more than 100 people, including
foreigners from Syria and Egypt since the April 21 bombings.
On Sunday police in the eastern town of Kattankudy raided a
mosque founded by Zahran which doubled up as the headquarters of his group, the
National Thawheedh Jamaath (NTJ).
HOLY WAR
In the video, Rilwan Hashim is seen calling for 'jihad' or
holy war, while children cry in the background.
"We will destroy these non-believers to protect this
land and therefore we need to do jihad," Rilwan says in the video, sitting
beside his brother and father.
"We need to teach a proper lesson for these
non-believers who have been destroying Muslims."
Rilwan, who has a damaged eye and badly disfigured hand in
the video, had recently been injured while making a bomb, Jayanathdhi said.
On Sunday, when Reuters visited the house, police were
sifting through the wreckage, taking fingerprints and video footage.
Watermelon rinds and a box of dates were still on the
kitchen counter, while four pairs of children's flip-flops were by the front
door.
But in the main room, where the three men filmed the video,
a huge crater had punched a hole in the concrete floor, while bloodstains
covered the wall.
LOCAL VIGILANCE
Two men had moved into the three-room rented house in the
Sainthamaruthu area of Kalmunai, days before the Easter Sunday attacks, police
and locals said. After more people arrived, locals grew suspicious, said
Mohammed Majid, the secretary of the Grand Masjid Sainthamaruthu, one of the
town's main mosques.
After evening prayers on Friday, a group of men from the
local Hijra Mosque came to the house to question the occupants.
When one man brandished an assault rifle, the men fled,
alerting police who arrived shortly afterwards. One man was killed after
running into the street with a gun to confront police, while a series of
explosions came from the house, eyewitnesses said.
DANGER REMAINS
Authorities suspect there may be more suicide bombers on the
loose. Defence authorities have so far focused their investigations on
international links to two domestic groups they believe carried out the
attacks, the National Thawheedh Jamaath and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim.
At a nearby house where police seized more explosives and a
flag of the Islamic State on Friday, locals said they feared more violence.
"People were coming and going but we didn’t know their
names," said Juneedha Hasanar, who runs a shop at the bottom of the
street, yards from the house. “Now we are afraid.”
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Easter
bombings, and on Sunday the group said three of its members clashed with Sri
Lankan police for several hours in Friday's gun battle on the east coast before
detonating their explosive vests, the militant group's news agency Amaq said.
The group said 17 policemen were killed or injured in the
attack, but the Sri Lankan military has denied this. A police source told
Reuters two policemen were slightly injured in the battle.
Police have said six children were among the other 12 people
who died in the gun battle, and on Sunday recovered the partial remains of a
child no more than a few months old.
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