Sri Lankan police looking for 140 people with ISIS links as attacks death toll revised to 253

Sri Lankan police are looking for 140 people believed to have links with Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) over the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels, President Maithripala Sirisena said on Friday. Some Sri Lankan youths had been involved with the extremist group since 2013, the president said, adding that top defense and police chiefs had not shared information with him about the impending attacks. He also blamed PM Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government for weakening the intelligence system by focusing on the prosecution of military officers over alleged war crimes during a decade-long civil war with Tamil separatists. Officials revised the death toll from the bombings down by about 100 on Thursday. The new official figure was 253, down from an earlier 359, Reuters reported.