On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, the suicide bomb blast attack on three
Christian churches in Sri Lanka and three luxury hotels in the commercial
capital was a strategic terrorism attack carried on by the National Thowheeth
Jama’ath, a local militant Islamist group.
The church bombings were carried out during Easter services in Negombo,
Batticaloa and Colombo; the hotels that were bombed were the Shangri-La,
Cinnamon Grand, Kingsbury and Tropical Inn.
253 people were killed including 42 foreign nationals and three police
officers, and at least 500 were injured.
According to police, ‘The group of Islamists had used one
bomber at each of the locations hit, except at Shangri-La hotel where there
were two suicide explosions. St Anthony’s church was targeted by a local
resident named Ahmed Muaz. His brother has been arrested. The St Sebastian
bomber was Mohamed Hasthun, a resident from the island’s east where Hashim was
based.”
Sri Lank has a minority group of 7 per cent of Christian in its population of
21 million.
After the attack the country has declared a state of emergency where Social media has been banned.
