Sri Lanka Easter Bombings

The 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks that occurred on 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, when three Christian churches across Sri Lanka and three luxury hotels in the commercial capital Colombo were targeted in a series of coordinated terrorist suicide bombings. Later that day, there were smaller explosions at a housing complex in Dematagoda and a guest house in Dehiwala. Several cities in Sri Lanka were targeted. At least 321 people were killed, including at least 39 foreign nationals and three police officers, and at least 500 were injured in the bombings.

The church bombings were carried out during Easter services in Negombo, Batticaloa and Colombo; the hotels bombed were the Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand, Kingsbury and Tropical Inn hotels.

According to government officials, all seven of the suicide bombers in the near-simultaneous attacks were Sri Lankan citizens associated with National Thowheeth Jama'ath, a local militant Islamist group with suspected foreign ties, previously known for attacks against Buddhists. State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene said in parliament that initial investigations have revealed that the attack was in retaliation for the attack against Muslims in Christchurch on 15 March 2019. However, analysts believe the attacks to have been planned before the Christchurch attack.

On 23 April 2019, the militant Islamic terrorism organisation, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), claimed responsibility for the bombings.

Background

The main religions in Sri Lanka are Buddhist (70%), Hindu (13%), Muslim (10%) and Christian (7%), with 82% of the Christians being Roman Catholics. The remaining Christians are evenly split between the Anglican Church of Ceylon and other Protestant denominations.

During the 2010s, a low but persisting number of attacks and threats were made against Christian congregations and individuals, as well as other religious minorities. Anglican Bishop of Colombo Dhiloraj Canagasabey called for constitutional rights on religion to be protected. In 2018, the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL) reported a large increase in the number of attacks against Christians in the country that year. This coincided with a Supreme Court ruling against a Catholic organisation in August, which deemed that proselytism was not protected by the constitution (though individual freedom of religion remained protected).

Easter Sunday is one of Christianity's holiest days and church attendance in Sri Lanka is very high on this day.

The New York Times and AFP reported on a police chief warning security officials in an advisory ten days before the attacks of a threat to prominent churches from a radical Islamist group, National Thowheeth Jama’ath. No information in this regard had been passed to the senior politicians of the country, however Minister Harin Fernando then tweeted images of an internal memo and report by the police intelligence of a terror attack planned by the leader of National Thowheeth Jama’ath, Mohammed Zahran.

This was the first time since 2009, the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War, that the country had experienced a major terrorist attack.

Attacks

Christians were celebrating Easter Sunday services when the bombings took place, targeting churches and hotels around Sri Lanka. The sequence and coordination of the bombings were planned to cause maximum destruction, targeting Christians during mass services across the island nation, and targeting guests at the height of breakfast in luxurious beachfront hotels in the capital. All six of the first set of blasts targeting the churches and hotels were carried out by suicide bombers.

The first blast took place in the Shrine of St. Anthony Church, a historic church in the capital, where more than 50 people were killed. The second blast took place in St. Sebastian's Church in the Christian-majority suburb of Negombo, to the north of Colombo and Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte. St. Sebastian's is also close to Sri Lanka's main airport, Bandaranaike International Airport, where security was heightened.

Sri Lankan media reported at least 40 people killed in Colombo, between St. Anthony's and the hotels.

Thwarted Attacks

An improvised explosive device was found near the Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo and was dismantled by the Sri Lankan Air Force.

On 22 April, the Special Task Force (STF), the elite counter-terorrism unit of the Sri Lanka Police, located a van belonging to the attackers near St. Anthony's Shrine, the site of one of the prior day's blasts. Upon inspection, the vehicle was found to have been rigged with 3 bombs. After the STF's bomb defusing unit evacuated the surrounding area, the bombs exploded simultaneously during an unsuccessful defusing attempt. The same day, police reportedly found 87 items of bomb paraphernalia at the Bastian Mawatha Private Bus Station in Pettah.

International Responses to the Attacks

Numerous world leaders expressed condolences and condemnation.  World leaders giving condolences included those of Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, the Holy See, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, New Zealand, Morocco, Pakistan, Palestine, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.

                  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Sri_Lanka_Easter_bombings