Colombo: Sri Lanka’s intelligence agency has warned the country’s top leadership not to travel together during the coming few weeks after information was received of possible terror attacks, a media report said Wednesday.
President Maithripala Sirisena, PM Ranil Wickremesinghe and opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa are among the leaders who have received the cautionary advice. The move is part of the beefed up security arrangements in the island nation after a series of coordinated bomb blasts ripped off three churches and high-end hotels, killing 253 people and injuring 500 others.
The political leaders have also been asked to refrain from attending events, especially held in churches, temples and other religious place, the Daily Mirror reported. They have been advised to use helicopters to commute to any place where their presence is unavoidable.
Meanwhile, Megapolis and Western Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka asked the Lankan govt to deport 800 foreign Islamic clerics engaged in religious teaching at various madrasas across the country. He said these clerics had arrived on tourist visas, but were engaged in Islamic religious teaching.
Meanwhile, four oceanic scientists were among the six Chinese nationals killed in the Easter blasts, the Chinese Embassy in Colombo said.
The deceased included Li Jian, 38, and Pan Wenliang, 35, senior engineers at the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Two others, Li Dawei, 30, and Wang Liwei, 26, were from the First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Global Times reported.