Security personnel are seen at the site of an overnight gunbattle between troops and suspected Islamist militants, on the east coast of Sri Lanka, in Kalmunai, April 27, 2019. VOA
Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said officers found a cache of 150 gelignite sticks, an Islamic State uniform, steel pellets, a drone, a laptop computer, as well as a van thought to be used during the Easter attacks.
On Friday, thousands of Sri Lankan security personnel were deployed across the country to places of worship, as Muslims answered the call to prayer. Security forces combed the country, tracking down what they say are dozens of local militants with links to the Islamic State terror group.
Sri Lanka's police chief Pujith Jayasundara resigned Friday because of the security failures around the attacks. A day earlier, Defense Secretary Hemasriri Fernando quit in the wake of the bombings, heeding calls from Sri Lanka's president for his resignation. Sirisena had called on Fernando and Jayasundara to step down after he promised in a televised address to take stern action against officials who did not share with him the intelligence alerts that came from India days prior to the bombing of churches and luxury hotels.
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As the government faces an outpouring of public anger over the failure to heed the warnings, senior officials admit it has been a "major lapse."
Reports say Indian intelligence agencies sent out several warnings to Sri Lanka, and that Indian security agencies had gathered details about the Islamic militant group suspected of carrying out the attacks. (VOA)
