Riyadh Advises Nationals to Leave Sri Lanka after Easter Attacks

Saudi Arabia has advised its nationals to leave Sri Lanka. “Given the current security situation in the Republic of Sri Lanka, the embassy advises citizens in Sri Lanka to leave,” the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Colombo said in a tweet. The instruction follows suicide bombings on hotels and churches on April 21 that claimed the lives of over 250 people and wounded some 500. Islamic State claimed responsibility without providing details. However, local authorities have pinned the blame on a small domestic terror group, the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), which has yet to admit culpability. The armed Islamist group’s founder, Zahran Hashim, was the alleged leader of the suicide bombers and blew himself up along with his underlings. Dozens of suspects have been arrested, but officials have warned that the assailants were planning more attacks. Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena earlier this week implemented an emergency law that will ban women from wearing face veils to help security forces identify people during their manhunt, authorities said. Human Rights Watch condemned the ban. Nearly 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s roughly 22 million people are Muslim, and a small minority of women, usually in Muslim areas, cover their faces.