Father and two brothers of the suspected mastermind, Zahran Hashim, of Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka were killed in a gun battle on Friday, according to reports.
Mohamed Hashim, along with his two sons -- Zainee Hashim, Rilwan Hashim, seen in a video circulating on social media calling for an all-out war against non-believers, were among the 15 killed in a gun battle with the military on the east coast on Friday.
Zahran Hashim’s brother-in-law, Niyaz Sharif, is the suspected ringleader of the Easter bombings.
Sri Lanka has been on high alert since the attacks on Easter Sunday, with nearly 10,000 soldiers deployed across the island to carry out searches and hunt down members of two local Islamist groups believed to have carried out the attack.
The deadly bombings that targetted churches and hotels, most of them in Colombo, claimed the lives of 310 people and injured over 500 others, in the bloodiest attacks in Sri Lanka since the civil war ended a decade ago.
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