Sri Lankan military stand guard near the explosion site at a church in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka April 21, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES Sri Lankan military stand guard near the explosion site at a church in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka April 21, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

Sri Lanka Bomb Blasts HIGHLIGHTS: The Indian Coast Guard on Monday beefed up surveillance and deployed more ships and aircraft for patrolling following a series of devastating blasts in Sri Lanka on Sunday. A senior Coast Guard official told PTI that the move has been taken to ensure no element that poses a security threat to the country sneaks through the sea.

Another explosion went off on Monday in a van near a church in Colombo when a squad of Special Task Force (STF) and air force were trying to diffuse the bomb, Reuters reported. The Sri Lanka Police also found 87 bomb detonators at Colombo main bus station, a day after the island nation was shaken by serial blasts killing 290 people and wounding 500 others. The National Tawheed Jamath outfit is suspected to be behind the deadly serial bomb blasts that ripped through churches and hotels and claimed nearly 300 lives on Easter, Sri Lankan minister Rajitha Senaratne said on Monday. The seven suicide bombers who had carried out the attacks were Sri Lankan nationals, he added.

Twenty-four persons were arrested in connection with the eight bombs blasts that left nearly 500 people injured. Late on Sunday, authorities defused an improvised pipe bomb on a road leading to the main terminal of the Colombo airport. Social media services continued to remain blocked in the country to curtail the spread of false information and ease tensions until the probe into the blasts is concluded.