Over 200 people were killed and nearly 500 injured in a series of blasts that hit Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. This is the deadliest incident since the civil war ended a decade ago.
About:
On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches across Sri Lanka and three luxury hotels in Colombo, were bombed.
Targeted Locations: The church bombings were carried out during Easter services in Negombo, Batticaloa and Colombo; the hotels bombed were the Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury hotels, all in Colombo.
Nature of Attack: Most of the blasts appear to have been suicide bombings.
Victims: 290 people were killed and at least 500 injured. The majority are Sri Lankans, with at least 36 foreigners.
Perpetrators:
No group has claimed responsibility for the blasts.
However, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe later acknowledged that on April 11, a top Sri Lankan police official issued an advisory, warning of potential suicide attacks on churches by a radical Islamist group called National Thoweeth Jama’ath (NTJ), which was ignored.
It is also alleged that a local module of ISIS seeking revenge for the New Zealand mosque attack could be behind Sunday’s episode.
Aftermath: Sri Lanka’s government has declared an indefinite national curfew and blocked social media networks such as Facebook and WhatsApp in order to prevent the spread of rumors that might spark intercommunal violence, as happened in March 2018 when Buddhist mobs attacked Muslim mosques, businesses, and homes.
Dear Student,
You have still not entered your mailing address. Please enter the address where all the study materials will be sent to you. (If applicable).
