28 April

Sri Lankan investigators say they suspect one of the suicide bombers in the coordinated Easter Sunday attacks was radicalized in Australia.

The authorities say Abdul Latheef Mohamed Jameel undertook a postgraduate degree in Australia for the four years until 2013. An Australian media outlet reports that the country's police started investigating him after he was contacted by a man suspected to be a recruiter for the Islamic State group.

Jameel's sister told media that he returned to Sri Lanka as a different man. The suspect grew a long beard and repeated extremist ideas. Sri Lankan investigators say other attackers were also well educated and came from relatively wealthy families. The bombings hit hotels and churches in Sri Lanka on April 21, killing 253 people. Most of the attacks occurred in and around the largest city, Colombo.

Sri Lankan investigators have determined that eight men and a woman from a local Muslim extremist group carried out the attacks.—NHK