Ruwan Wijewardene also reported the death toll had risen to 321.
Sunday’s devastating bomb blasts on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka were a direct response to the attacks on two New Zealand mosques carried out by a white supremacist last month, according to Sri Lanka’s defense minister.
Michael Safi, a correspondent for The Guardian, reported Tuesday that Ruwan Wijewardene told journalists initial inquiries suggested the two terrorist attacks were linked. Wijewardene also told reporters that the death toll from the Easter Sunday attacks had risen to 321.
The coordinated bombings targeted multiple hotels and churches in the cities of Negombo, Batticaloa and Colombo. As worshippers congregated at churches and tourists enjoyed breakfast, suicide attackers detonated explosives in what has become the deadliest terror attack in South Asia in recent memory.
Local Islamist group National Thowheed Jamaath is believed to be behind the attack. However, the organization has no history of violent attacks and Sri Lankan officials suspect the militants had assistance from a separate international group.
