Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed: Sri Lanka suicide bomber who studied in UK named

Kim Sengupta
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The Sri Lanka terror suspect who had lived in the UK has been named as Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed, a student who studied at a college in southeast England for just under a year from 2006.

It is not known whether he completed the course.

Security officials in the UK confirmed that they are investigating Mohamed’s stay in this country, what, if anything, was known about him and whether he appears in their databases. After leaving the UK he embarked upon a postgraduate course in Australia before settling in Sri Lanka.

The inquiry will look at claims, so far unconfirmed, that Mohamed was involved in Islamic student bodies and had links with charities working in the Middle East and had travelled to Europe.

Mohamed’s name was passed on by Sri Lankan security officials to the UK agencies as the country’s deputy defence minister, Ruwan Wijeqwardene, announced that one of the suicide bombers who had killed 359 people had studied in the UK.

Those who had carried out the attack, he said, were well-educated and were middle or upper-middle class, adding that they were “financially quite independent.” And some held law degrees.

Among those arrested, according to Indian and Sri Lankan security sources, is Mohammed Yusuf Ibrahim, a wealthy spice trader and businessman, whose two sons Imsath Ahmed Ibrahim, 33, and Ilham Ahmed Ibrahim, 31, allegedly bombed the breakfast buffets at the Cinnamon Grand and Shangri La hotels.