KARACHI: The intelligence reports have revealed that another Sri Lanka bomber, Mohammad Mubarak Azaan, visited India twice in 2017.
Azaan is the second bomber whose links with India surfaced after an Indian media report stated that Zahran Hashim, the mastermind behind the deadly attacks, had travelled to India and received training there.
The investigators have identified Hashim as the leader of National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ), who executed the highly coordinated blasts at churches and hotels on the Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka, leaving 253 people dead and several hundreds injured. He was the only one in Daesh video whose face was not covered.
According to the report, Azaan blew himself up at one of three churches targeted on April 21. The authorities have declined to share details about the purpose of Azaan’s visits to India, the people he was in touch with and the places he travelled to during the two trips.
The NTJ leader spent “substantial” time in “south India,” a top Sri Lankan military source said on Friday.
Sri Lankan investigators, however, have identified nine suicide bombers, including a woman. “We are looking into the IS angle. We also suspect that some of those radical youth were indoctrinated and trained in India, possibly Tamil Nadu,” the senior official said, on condition of anonymity.
Indian officials would not comment that Hashim travelled to India but pointed to evidence of virtual links he maintained with youth believed to be of Indian origin. More than 100 followers of Hashim’s Facebook page are being investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), said an official, who asked not to be named.
Earlier this week, locals told The Hindu that Zahran had left the town two years ago after a fierce disagreement with the Moulavi (religious scholar) on the practice of Islam. He was absconding since then, community leaders said.