India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) has raided the houses of at least four people in North Kerala in relation to the Easter Sunday bombing in Sri Lanka which claimed over 250 lives.

The targets of the raid lived in Kasargode and Palakkad and were identified as having followed Zahara Hashim devotedly on social media. Hashim is a radical Islamic preacher who is accused of having planned the attacks in Sri Lanka.

<p>The UN Security Council has released a statement condemning the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka which claimed the lives of almost 300 people and urged all states to support Sri Lanka in its efforts to hold the perpetrators accountable.</p> <p>This statement comes as the President blamed&nbsp;UN investigations into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka for a weakening of the state’s security apparatus.&nbsp;</p> <p>Sri Lanka is currently under a state of emergency under which social media outlets are blocked and the police authorise are able to make arbitrary arrests.&nbsp;</p>

Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) today detained the mother of the suspected suicide bomber at the Batticaloa Zion church in the Easter Sunday blasts. 

Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena today using emergency legislation to ban the Islamist extremist groups accused of being responsible for the Easter Sunday blasts. 

In a statement the president's media division said National Thawheed Jammath (NTJ) and Jamathei Millathu Ibraheem (JMI) had been banned. 

Questions over how the bombers were able to carry out such attacks remain however after numerous reports, including a letter from the Deputy Inspector General of Police stated that the Sri Lankan leaders were warned repeatedly about the attacks by their own intelligence personnel and by Indian counterparts. 
 

Sri Lankan police are actively investigating if Islamist groups responsible for the Easter Sunday suicide attacks are also responsible for the killing of two officers in Batticaloa last year, after a missing police rifle was found in a raid yesterday. 

Sri Lanka's president, Maithripala Sirisena blamed the UN inquiry into war crimes during the armed conflict for the suicide bomb attacks by Islamist extremists on Easter Sunday. 

Valikaamam East Divisional Secretariat passed a motion this week condemning the Easter Sunday blasts, which killed over 250 people. 

Sri Lanka’s former defence chief Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was at the helm when state forces killed tens of thousands of Tamils, announced this week that he would run for presidency in upcoming elections.

A vigil led by British Tamils was held at St Paul’s Cathedral Churchyard, London on Friday, in tribute to the victims who lost their lives in a series of coordinated attacks on Easter Sunday.