Colombo: Sri Lankan police on Thursday said that they have not received any "evidence" to confirm the media reports that the wife of one of the Easter suicide bombers may have fled to India to avoid arrest.
Police spokesman Jaliya Senaratne made the comments while responding to questions on the media reports that the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) on the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings was told that Pulasthini Rajendran alias Sarah, the wife of bomber Achchi Mohammdu Mohammadu Hasthun, had fled to India by the sea in September last.
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"We have detained two people...but we have not received any acceptable evidence that the person had fled the country," Senaratne said.
Last year on April 21, nine suicide bombers belonging to the local 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 258 people, including 11 Indians, and injuring over 500 on the Easter Sunday. Hasthun blew himself up at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo.
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Sri Lankan police have arrested over 200 suspects in connection with the bombings.
Chief Inspector Arjuna Maheenkanda told the PCoI that the person who assisted her to flee had been arrested.
Maheenkanda said that in October 2019, he was assigned to investigate the attacks carried out by the NTJ.
He told the PCoI that on July 6, he received a tip-off from an informant that Sarah, who was in the NTJ hideout in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, had escaped and was hiding in Mankadu in the eastern town of Batticaloa.
PTI
