On April 14, 2020, Sri Lankan authorities arrested Hejaaz Hizbullah under “Prevention Of Terrorism Act”. He was amongst the suspects of 2019’s Sunday Easter Bombings attack. Human Rights Watch urged the Sri Lankan government to ensure that the detained people have access to lawyer. Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne confirmed that all of the bombers were Sri Lankan citizens associated with National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ), a local militant radical Islamist group, but foreign links are suspected. There had been no claim of responsibility before 23 April. NTJ's leadership had been condemned by several Sri Lankan Muslim organisations in 2016 for advocating extreme fundamentalist indoctrination of children and for clashes with Buddhist monks, and was linked in 2018 to vandalism of Buddhist statues following anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka. NTJ's leader and "bombing mastermind" Zahran Hashim from Sri Lanka, preached on a pro-ISIL Sri Lankan Facebook account, known as "Al-Ghuraba" media, and on YouTube. During a press conference on 23 April 2019, State Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardene confirmed that a second splinter group was being investigated, but declined to provide details. On 27 April 2019, President Sirisena designated Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim (the splinter group) and National Thowheeth Jama'ath as terrorist organisations. This enables the freezing and seizure of assets belonging to these groups. Willayath As Seylani proscribed among NTJ and JMI under Emergency regulations of 75(1). Wijewardene announced that most of the suicide bombers were "well-educated and come from middle or upper-middle class", and that they were "financially quite independent". He stated one of the bombers studied in the United Kingdom before going to Australia to complete a postgraduate degree. Sri Lankan police have identified the nine suicide bombers:  The attackers are assessed to have links with Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, at least in the digital sphere. Hashim was featured in a video released by Amaq purporting to show eight of the suicide bombers. One of the bombers, Abdul Latheef, had tried to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State. It was reported that he was one of the subjects of a terrorism investigation by the Australian Joint Counter Terrorism Team in 2014 after intelligence emerged linking him to an IS operative Neil Prakash. British newspaper "The Times" has reported that security agencies believe he might have reached Syria where he was trained and had links with British ISIL members like Jihadi John and Junaid Hussain.