INSHAF Ahamed Ibrahim, the Sri Lankan suicide bomber and alleged mastermind of the atrocity which killed 359 people, had lied to his wife that he was coming to Zambia last Friday for work before he was escorted to the airport by the family.

Ibrahim’s brother-in-law, Ashkhan Alawdeen, said the attacker had told his wife at the time they parted at the airport to ‘‘be strong’’ during the time he would be away to Zambia for work but only realised what he truly meant when he caused the atrocity.

“When the bombings were going on I was panicking. I was in total shock. My brother-in-law said he was going to Zambia on Friday for work and went to the airport with my sister and their four children in a car. 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 because she assumed he was just going on a work trip. After that we all went to our parents’ home outside Colombo and were enjoying our weekend when this happened,” Mr. Alawdeen said.

He said none of the family members expected Ibrahim’s trip to Zambia to end in such a tragedy but said his brother in law deserved to burn in hell.

“My sister has broken down. This is not something we expect in our family. If I had any inkling about what he was planning to do I would have gone straight to the police. My brother-in-law is a psychopath. He deserves to be punished in hell,” he said.

The UK Mirror reports that one of the Sri Lankan suicide bombers was caught on film as he blew up 67 innocent worshippers – as details emerged of the husband and wife terrorists involved in the Easter Sunday massacre.

The extremist was seen casually strolling into St Sebastian church in Negombo, carrying a bomb inside a rucksack. With callous indifference, he ruffles the hair of a child moments before he unleashes carnage.

A church camera filmed him disappearing in a flash of smoke as he set off a device which sprayed metal all around him, killing anyone in its path.