No Records of Sri Lanka Bombers Visiting Kashmir: J&K Police Chief

“We have checked and there is no information about them having visited here,” said J&K Police chief Dilbag Singh.

Nearly 300 people were killed and hundreds more hospitalised in eight blasts in Sri Lanka on Easter. 

(Photo: Chamila Karunarathne/AP)

Jammu and Kashmir Police chief Dilbag Singh on Sunday, 5 May, said there was no record to suggest that any of the suicide bombers, who carried out the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka, had visited Kashmir as claimed by the Army chief of the island nation.

Talking to PTI, Singh said they have not received any information from the Island nation through diplomatic channel but the persons whose names appeared on social media have not travelled to Kashmir.

“We have checked and there is no information about them having visited here,” Singh said, adding immigration records were re-visited after the terrorist attacks and none of the bombers had visited Kashmir.

He was reacting a day after claims were made by Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake, Commander of the Sri Lankan Army, on BBC that "they (the suspects) have gone to India, they've gone to Kashmir, Bangalore, they've traveled to Kerala state. Those are the information available with us."

Singh said that the army chief of Sri Lanka should send whatever evidence they have, through diplomatic channels, and that he would look into it.

Some officials of the central security agencies said that about a dozen Sri Lankan nationals had come to Kashmir Valley this year and their credentials have been re-checked after the 21 April bombings in three churches and three luxury hotels killed 253 people and injured over 500 others.

However, there could be a possibility of the bombers visiting the state using pseudonym, one of the officials said, adding if Sri Lanka hands over some evidence, it can be verified from the ground.

Sri Lanka Army’s chief has said that some of the suicide bombers, who carried out the country’s worst terror attack, visited Kashmir and Kerala for “some sorts of training” or to “make some more links” with other foreign outfits.

It is the first time that a top Sri Lankan security official has confirmed the militants' visit to India which had shared intelligence inputs with Colombo ahead of the attack.

Nine suicide bombers, including a woman, carried out the series of blasts.