COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan spice tycoon, the father of two of the suspected Easter suicide bombers, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of aiding and abetting his sons carry out the deadly terror attacks that left nearly 360 people dead.
Spice merchant Mohamed Yusuf Ibrahim's two sons - identified as Ilham Ahmed Ibrahim and Imsath Ahmed Ibrahim - allegedly detonated their explosives at the Shangri-La and the Cinnamon Grand hotels on Sunday.
Police are holding the brothers' father on suspicion of "aiding and abetting" his sons, the CNN reported.
According to media reports, investigators are also searching the spice trader's mansion in Colombo - which was the site of the eighth blast - for evidence of the attacks.
Former navy chief Jayanath Colombage, now a counterterrorism expert, said it was unclear whether the father or his home, where an explosion Sunday killed three police officers, had been under surveillance ahead of the attacks.Elder brother Ilham, who detonated a device at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, was previously arrested by police and then released, a Sri Lankan government spokesman told CNN.
Sri Lankan police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera did not answer repeated calls and messages seeking comment, but earlier said 58 people had been detained since the bombings.
The Rev. Niroshan Perera, a priest overseeing funerals of people killed in the Negombo blast at St. Sebastian's church, said Catholic churches in the city, known as "Little Rome" for its many religious buildings, were all closed and had canceled Mass upon the advice of government security officials.
Perera said an official had warned him that police were still searching for two armed suspects.
"Little bit, we are nervous," he said.
In Colombo, John Keells Holdings, the parent company of the Cinnamon Grand hotel, one of the sites targeted in the Easter Sunday bombings, told employees at its various hotel properties to stay inside "further to the communications we have received" in an email shared with the AP.
Few people were out in Dematagoda, a wealthy Colombo neighborhood where investigators combed through the home of the arrested father of the suspects, a mansion with nine front balconies where investigators said suspects detonated a ninth bomb on Sunday that killed three police officers who were pursuing them. A white BMW was parked outside a garage partially blown out in the blast.
Officials say many of the bombing suspects were highly educated and came from well-off families who lived in the neighborhood.
In a house on the other side of a quiet, leafy lane full of mansions, Buhari Mohammed Anwar, 77, a retired primary school teacher, said his neighbor was a nice person who helped the poor.
Of the suspected suicide bombers, he said, "Their father ... didn't expect this. Their father advises them every day. But they don't listen. Children became like that, they don't listen."
Anwar's 14-year-old grandson said he used to ride bicycles and play soccer with one of the suspect's children, a 10-year-old boy who frequently visited his relatives there, and that the other children at the house were too young to play outside. He said his entire house shook when the bomb went off.
Elsewhere, Sri Lankan police continued their search for additional explosives, detonating a suspicious item in a garbage dump in Pugoda, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) east of the capital.
Sri Lanka's civil aviation authority also banned drones and unmanned aircraft "in view of the existing security situation in the country," according to a statement.
Hobby drones have been used by militants in the past to carry explosives. Iraqi forces found them difficult to shoot down while driving out the Islamic State group, whose members loaded drones with grenades or simple explosives to target government forces. Yemen's Houthi rebels also have used drones, most recently to target a military parade in January, killing troops.
The majority of the Easter Sunday suicide bombers were from well-to-do Sri Lankan families and they were well-educated, including one who studied in the UK, State Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardene said Wednesday.
Out of the nine bombers, eight have been identified.
The ninth bomber was confirmed as the wife of one of the suicide bombers.
Sri Lanka's government has blamed the attacks on three Catholic churches and three luxury hotels on an Islamist extremist group National Tawheed Jamath (NTJ).
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the government has blamed the NTJ.
Meanwhile, a huge international criminal investigation is ramping up in Sri Lanka, with six foreign police agencies and Interpol assisting local police, including Scotland Yard from the UK and the FBI from the US.
Officers from Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) have raided five safe houses across the country in connection with Sunday's attacks.
The Lankan authorities Thursday intensified their raids with the help of the army and arrested 16 more suspects in connection with the attacks, taing the total number of suspects under police custody to 76.
(With PTI inputs)