Sri Lanka blasts: Fatima Ibrahim identified as one of the suicide bombers; wife of SL millionaire blew self up with unborn child

Fatima Ibrahim, the wife of Sri Lankan millionaire businessman-turned-Islamic State suicide bomber Inshaf Ahmed Ibrahim blew herself up with her unborn child, as well as three young sons, when police raided the family home on Sunday night, Indian intelligence sources have told Firstpost. Three police officials were also killed in the explosion.

Ibrahim — along with his brother Ilham Ahmed Ibrahim — left the family’s three-storey luxury home in Dematagoda and blew themselves up at the Cinnamon Grand and Shangri-La hotels’ breakfast buffets, as part of a wave of attacks on hotels and churches in which more than 359 people were killed

A series of bomb blasts rocked Sri Lanka on Sunday. Reuters

Fatima, the intelligence sources said, is believed to have been present amid a group of veiled suicide bombers swearing allegiance to the Islamic State, whose images were released by the jihadist organisation on Tuesday night. She can be seen, the sources said, on the right hand side of the frame, standing behind her husband.

Both brothers are sons of Mohammed Yusuf Ibrahim, a millionaire spice-trader who contested elections on Left-leaning Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna party. Ibrahim counted Minister for Industry and Commerce Rishath Bathiudeen among his close friends, and had often been seen at former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s receptions.

In an interview to The Mirror, Inshaf Ibrahim’s brother-in-law, jeweller Ashkhan Alawdeen, said the businessman-bomber had left home on Friday, saying he was going to Zambia for a business trip.

The parting with his sister, Alawdeen said, was unsual: “When he said goodbye he held her head and said, ‘be strong’.”

“She thought it was a bit strange at the time but didn’t think anything of it.”

“My brother-in-law is a psychopath,” Alawdeen told The Mirror, “He deserves to be punished in hell.”

Inshaf Ibrahim owned Colossus Copper, a manufacturing facility in an industrial estate east of Colombo. The factory, investigators believe, was used to fabricate the suicide vests used in the attack, supplying bolts and screws that filled the devices.

Nine Sri Lankans at the factory, including the manager, were arrested shortly before midnight on Sunday. They worked alongside Indians and Bangladeshi migrant workers.

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