Sri Lanka police arrest Muslim MP over links to 2019 attacks

Detectives took Rishad Bathiudeen, leader of the All Ceylon Makkal Party, into custody under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), police spokesman Ajith Rohana said.

Sri Lanka’s police on Saturday arrested a top Muslim leader and member of parliament in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks that killed 279 people as pressure to speed up the investigation mounted.

The arrests came after the head of Sri Lanka’s Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, accused the government of allowing investigations to stall.

Detectives took Rishad Bathiudeen, leader of the All Ceylon Makkal Party, into custody under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), police spokesman Ajith Rohana said.

He said Bathiudeen and his brother Riyaaj were arrested in pre-dawn raids on their homes in Colombo. “They were arrested under the PTA based on circumstantial and scientific evidence that they had connections with the suicide bombers who carried out the attacks,” Rohana said.

The arrests came after the head of Sri Lanka’s Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, accused the government of allowing investigations to stall. Nearly 200 people were arrested within days of the suicide attacks by local Islamist extremists, but no one has yet been charged.