Par panel probing Easter blasts asks Taj Samudra to provide April 21 guests' list

A Sri Lankan parliamentary panel, investigating the Easter Sunday attacks in which 258 people were killed, has asked the luxury Taj Samudra hotel here to provide the list of guests who were staying there and ate breakfast on April 21, a media report said Thursday. Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) Ananda Kumarasiri, during the proceedings of the panel last evening, sought the list of guests from Hotel Taj Samudra, the Daily Mirror reported.

"Obtaining this list could help shed some light on why Hotel Taj Samudra was spared by the terrorists who launched these attacks," Kumarasiri said. His comments came after Member of Parliament Dayasiri Jayasekara asked the committee to direct authorities to investigate as to why one of the Easter Sunday attackers did not set off his bomb at the Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo despite visiting the facility and to also find out who was at that hotel on April 21.

Abdul Latheef Mohamed Jameel, 37, one of the suicide bombers, attempted to bomb the Taj Samudra hotel of Tata Group's hospitality arm, Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL), on April 21. But his bomb probably failed and he was seen leaving the premises. He later blew himself up at a motel in the suburb of Dehiwala, killing two guests. Nine suicide bombers carried out a series of devastating blasts on April 21 that tore through three churches and three high-end hotels frequented by tourists in Sri Lanka's deadliest terror attack since the devastating civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended in 2009.

The Islamic State claimed the attacks, but the government blamed local Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jamaath (NTJ) for the bombings which killed 258 people, including 11 Indians, and injured hundreds.

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