SRI LANKA’S president banned two groups allegedly linked to the Easter bombings under emergency powers that came into effect Tuesday.

The office of President Maithripala Sirisena said in a statement Saturday evening that National Thawheed Jammath, or NTJ, and Jamathei Millathu Ibraheem, or JMI, would be banned by presidential decree.

Presidential spokesman Dharmasri Ekanayake said the move allows the government to confiscate any property belonging to the two organizations.

Officials confirmed last week that the alleged leader of the Muslim extremist group, an offshoot of NTJ, had died in one of the coordinated suicide bombings at churches and hotels that killed more than 250 people.

Meanwhile, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for three men who blew themselves up in clashes with Sri Lankan police, the militant group said in a statement.

The men set off explosives after an hour-long gun battle with police Saturday, inside what was believed to be a jihadist hideout near the eastern town of Kalmunai, in the latest fallout from the Easter attacks.

In a statement posted Saturday by the IS propaganda unit the Amaq News Agency, IS said the three men were part of the Islamic State group and detonated their bombs after the fight with police.

The statement said the men “clashed with them with automatic weapons, and after exhausting their ammunition, detonated on them their explosive belts.”

Fifteen people died in the clashes, police said, including three women and six children.

The violence came six days after the Easter Day bombings on three churches and three luxury hotels, which killed at least 253 people and injured 500.

Security forces armed with emergency powers have stepped up search operations for Islamic extremists since the bombings.

(SD-Agencies)