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.