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24 Men Arrested In Connection With Sri Lanka Blasts: Police

Sri Lankan authorities blocked most social media after Easter Sunday attacks killed 290 people.
Police and forensic officials inspect a blast spot at the Shangri-la hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, April 21, 2019.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Police and forensic officials inspect a blast spot at the Shangri-la hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, April 21, 2019.

Sri Lankan authorities have arrested 24 people in connection with the multiple blasts that rocked the island nation on Sunday, killing over 290 people.

A string of eight powerful blasts, including suicide attacks, struck churches and luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing over 290 people, including five Indians, and shattering a decade of peace in the island nation since the end of the brutal civil war with the LTTE.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said the number of arrests on the incidents have now gone up to 24.

However, the government said they will not disclose the details of the suspects involved in the attacks to prevent them from getting publicity.

“Don’t give extremists a voice. Don’t help to make them martyrs,” State Minister of Defence, Ruwan Wijewardene, told reporters when asked for details of those in custody.

A safe house where the bombers had lived for nearly three months leading to the attacks were discovered in the south of Colombo suburb of Panadura.

Sri Lanka Air Force said it found an improvised explosives device along a road leading to the departure terminal at the Colombo international airport Sunday night.

“It was a crude six- foot pipe bomb that was found by the roadside,” an air force spokesman said.

“We have removed it and safely defused it at an air force location,” he added.

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