Arden says, Easter Sunday attacks not related to Christchurch

Colombo (News 1st): New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that her government was not aware of any intelligence suggesting that a devastating attack on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka was in retaliation for deadly shootings at mosques in Christchurch.

"Yeah, I have seen reports of those statements. We haven't received anything officially nor have we received any intelligence reports that corroborate what has been said in Sri Lanka. Look I absolutely understand though, Sri Lanka will be in the very early stages of its investigations. So we are simply stepping back and allowing them to undertake those, but again as we say we have nothing at this stage to corroborate what is being said. Look, you know New Zealand's position remains utterly consistent. We stand opposed to all forms of extreme violence, all forms of terrorism and we've made that very clear."

Meanwhile, New Zealand also has pledged to work with France to bring together countries and tech companies in an effort to stop social media from being used to promote terrorism and violent extremism. Speaking in this regard New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern noted that their plan, however, is to make sure that they try and build unity around this issue, that they maintain the principles of a free, open and secure internet. She added that this isn't about freedom of expression, this is about preventing violent extremism and terrorism online.