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Sri Lanka looks for Easter attack survivors to help probe

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COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s police on Thursday issued an appeal to trace seven people thought to have survived the Easter bombings but who then went missing without speaking to investigators.


Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said investigators interviewed 81 survivors, but were keen to speak with another seven who left hospital without providing contact details.


“The CID (the Criminal Investigations Department) is very keen to speak with them and we are issuing an appeal to trace these people in connection with the attacks,” Gunasekera told reporters in Colombo.


He did not say if they suspect them to have been involved with the April 21 suicide bombers who targeted three churches and three luxury hotels, killing at least 258 people and wounding nearly 500.


Gunasekera said police seized assets worth Rs 6,000 million ($34 million) from the extremist suicide bombers and their immediate family.


A total of 293 people remained in custody as investigations continued, he added.


President Maithripala Sirisena, who is also the minister in charge of law and order, has said that all those responsible for the attacks were either killed or under arrest.


A state of emergency declared shortly after the Easter Sunday bombings was relaxed four months later in August.


The mainly Buddhist nation of 21 million people was about to mark a decade since ending a 37-year-long Tamil separatist war when the extremists struck.


The government has blamed a local fighter group, the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) while the IS group also claimed responsibility.


Meanwhile, Sri Lanka could overshoot its budget deficit target by much as 100 basis points this year, pushing its fiscal deficit to its highest in three years, as spending cuts have failed to offset shortfalls in revenues, three finance ministry officials said.


Tight monetary and fiscal policies coupled with the impact of Easter Sunday bomb attacks have dented investor confidence in the island nation and led to sluggish growth, which is this year expected to be the lowest in nearly two decades.


“Given the revenue drop and difficulty in cutting down government spending after the Easter Sunday attacks, we cannot achieve this year’s target,” a senior finance ministry official told Reuters, adding overall government spending had been cut by 15 per cent to try to maintain the fiscal consolidation path.


The finance ministry official, along with two other sources, said the revenue miss could push the fiscal deficit up to 5.4 per cent in 2019, from the 4.4 per cent target set by the government, in line with conditions tied to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan.


The three government sources asked not to be identified as they are not authorized to discuss the matter with media.


— AFP/Reuters


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