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Terror-Hit Sri Lanka Unearths Islamist Militants’ 10-Acre Training Camp - Report

The training camp was found in a residential area for the poor located on the outskirts of the hometown of Zahran Hashim, who is believed to be one of the main plotters of the Easter Sunday terror attacks.
Sputnik

New Delhi (Sputnik): Days after Sri Lanka witnessed terror attacks that killed over 250 people, security personnel in the island nation have come across an Islamist militant training camp in the eastern part of the country, Reuters reports.

Spread over a huge 10-acre expanse, the terror camp was discovered on Sunday in Kattankudy, an eastern town in Sri Lanka.

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Islamist militants said to be linked to the deadly 21 April Easter Sunday terror attacks across Sri Lanka that claimed over 250 lives and injured another 500 are said to have practised shooting and bomb-making skills in the camp.

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The narrow, sandy plot is dotted with a cinderblock four-storey watchtower, as well as mango trees, a chicken coop and a goat shed, the media report said.

Police have confirmed the reports, adding that they have arrested two people who owned the land.

The latest development came even as the government of Sri Lanka imposed a curfew in the city of Negombo, the site of one of the Easter Sunday bombings after fighting erupted between ethnic Sinhalese people and Muslims. There were no immediate reports of casualties, Al-Jazeera reported.

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According to the local police, the curfew will be in place until 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

It may be recalled that the St Sebastian's Church in Negombo was among the six sites bombed on 21 April. On Monday, government-run schools in Sri Lanka resumed classes amid tight security.

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