Close aide of Easter bombers arrested: SL police

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COLOMBO, April 27, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Security forces are seen outside St. Anthony's Church, one of the targets in a series of bomb blasts targeting churches and luxury hotels on Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on April 27, 2019.

Colombo,  A close associate of the Easter Sunday suicide bombers has been arrested in Sri Lanka with several passports, police said.

Mohammed Rizwan was arrested from the Mabole area in Wattala by the North-Western Province Intelligence Division officers on Wednesday and was being questioned, the Daily Mirror reported.

Earlier this week, rioters torched Muslim-owned shops, homes and vandalized mosques in several towns as the anti-Muslim unrest spread in the aftermath of the April 21 attacks in which over 250 people were killed. The killings were claimed by the Islamic State.

Police spokesman S.P. Ruwan Gunasekera said on Thursday that after days of violent clashes that claimed one life, “peaceful situation was now prevailing in the country due to which no curfew was imposed”.

He also said no incidents of violence were reported from either the North Western province or Gampaha district which were affected by the unrest on Monday.