Sri Lanka prepare for New Zealand challenge with unchanged T20I squad
Sri Lanka have named a strong 16-member squad led by Charith Asalanka for a six-match white-ball series involving three T20Is followed by three ODIs, against New Zealand.
Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, on Wednesday, said that the whole world should be vigilant following the threat given by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the terror group ISIS.
“Baghdadi said his organisation is ready to attack any city in the world any time. This is a threat to the entire world. Therefore, all countries should see that their defence forces are on alert,” Wickremesinghe said in a statement cited by the Daily Mirror on Wednesday.
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Earlier this week, ISIS had released a video of a man who claimed to be Baghdadi. The veracity of the video and of the claim that the speaker is Baghdadi has not been established as yet as he was last seen in 2014.
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In the video, “Baghdadi” claimed that the deadly bombings that shattered the peace on the island nation on Easter Sunday were a revenge act for the fall of the Syrian town of Baghuz which was freed from the ISIS by the US-led Kurdish fighters recently.
Wickremesinghe said the video and the claims made in the statement would be investigated. “This is why I concentrated on ensuring people’s security rather than spending time debating with others on the Easter Sunday attacks,” he said, adding that many arrests had been made and arms were being recovered due to the ability of security forces and the intelligence units.
“We will arrest all who were involved in attacks.
“Focus should be on those who are trying to get political mileage out of the present situation and also on the media that is helping them. The intention of these forces is to create an inter-religious clash,” Wickremesinghe said.
The ISIS has been designated a terrorist organisation by the United Nations, European Union and many individual states.
More than 300 people, including 10 Indians, were killed and hundreds injured in a series of bomb blasts that ripped through churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.
This was the biggest ever terror attack in the country since the end of the Sri Lankan civil war.
(With agency inputs)
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