Sri Lanka marks 4th anniversary of Easter Sunday terror attacks

Sri Lanka on April 21 marked the 4th anniversary of the Easter Sunday terror bombings that shook the island nation on April 21, 2019, even as families of victims marched, and many gathered outside churches, demanding truth and justice.

COLOMBO

Sri Lanka on April 21 marked the 4 th anniversary of the Easter Sunday terror bombings that shook the island nation on April 21, 2019, even as families of victims marched, and many gathered outside churches, demanding truth and justice.

Nearly 300 persons died and hundreds were injured in the coordinated serial blasts, across churches in Colombo, suburban Negombo, and the eastern city of Batticaloa; and luxury hotels in Colombo. The gruesome incident, that a network of Islamist radical suicide bombers claimed, rocked the relative peace that Sri Lanka experienced for a decade after its bloody civil war — in which tens of thousands of Tamils were killed — ended in 2009.

Also read: The inside story of the 9 suicide bombers behind Sri Lanka’s savage Easter attack

Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church, especially the Archbishop of Colombo Archdiocese Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, has been raising concern over authorities’ “slow-paced” investigations into the incident domestically and internationally, including at the Vatican and the UN Human Rights Council. Formerly a supporter of the Rajapaksas, the prominent Catholic priest has maintained that the Easter bombings were not merely the work of religious extremists but a “grand political conspiracy”. He has called for a comprehensive international probe to help trace the “real masterminds” behind the incident.

Speaking at a commemoration ceremony in Negombo on Friday, the Cardinal reiterated his suspicion of a “political link” to the Easter bombings. Alleging that “a nexus” between the bombers and State Intelligence Service was apparent, he recalled that top officials in Sri Lanka had ignored the intelligence input from India prior to the attacks. 

Sri Lanka’s Catholic church mounts pressure on Gotabaya over Easter attacks