Sri Lanka Police on Tuesday rejected claims circulating on social media and several websites that an organised-crime suspect detained over the weekend was preparing to carry out a string of bomb attacks in Colombo and other crowded areas.
Police Media Spokesman ASP F. U. Wootler said the reports were “completely false” and confirmed that no bomb plot of the kind described had been reported to investigators.
The clarification follows a wave of posts claiming that an associate of organised-crime gang leader “Kanjipani Imran” arrested during a raid in Ja Ela was the central figure in an imminent attack. ASP Wootler acknowledged that such a suspect had indeed been taken into custody during the weekend raid, but categorically denied the wider bomb-plot narrative attached to the arrest online.
The suspect remains in custody and investigations are continuing, the spokesman said, without naming the individual or disclosing the specific charges. “Kanjipani Imran” — a nickname referring to exiled underworld figure Mohammed Najim Mohamed Imran — heads one of the networks that police have linked to contract killings, narcotics trafficking and extortion rings operating from Dubai.
The timing of the claims drew particular attention: Tuesday marks the seventh anniversary of the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, which killed 279 people, and security agencies have been on heightened public-event alert. Police urged citizens not to share unverified security-related content and warned that those spreading false alarms could face legal action.
