A registrar of marriages from Oluvil has been arrested by the TID for allegedly providing accommodation to Zahran Hashim, the ringleader of the Easter Sunday attacks, and others on several occasions from 2017.

Police Spokesman DIG Ajith Rohana said the 55-year-old was arrested yesterday (30) in the Oluvil area by officers of the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) in connection with the Easter Sunday terror attacks and events that had occurred before the bombings.

The arrested suspect has been identified as Ahamadu Lebbe Zubairdeen, a registrar of marriages of the Oluvil area.

According to investigations, it had been revealed that Zahran and four other persons had been involved in an incident that had occurred at Aliyar in Kattankudy in 2017 when Zahran and his group had assaulted another group of persons that had expressed their views against his ideology. 

Thereafter Zahran had been missing for a certain period while he and the other persons were provided accommodation by an individual in the Oluvil area, who was yesterday identified as the marriage registrar, he said. 

Therefore, the suspect was arrested and he has been detained at the sub-unit of the TID in Batticaloa. He would be brought to Colombo and detained under the provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), the police spokesman added.

In addition to that the five persons who were accommodated by the suspect have been identified as two Mawlawis, Zahran Hashim, his brother Rilwan and another person, who had committed suicide in the Easter Sunday explosions.