2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings

2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings
Part of terrorism in Sri Lanka
Four of the major targets. Clockwise from upper left: St. Anthony's Shrine, St. Sebastian's Church, Shangri-La Hotel, The Kingsbury
Colombo Negombo Batticaloa Dehiwala 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings (Sri Lanka)
Location	Churches St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade St. Sebastian's Church, Negombo Zion Church, Batticaloa Hotels Shangri-La Hotel, Colombo Cinnamon Grand Hotel The Kingsbury Tropical Inn Hotel Housing complex One in Dematagoda
Date	21 April 2019 (2019-04-21) 08:00–08:45 First six explosions 14:10 The Tropical Inn Hotel explosion 14:40 and 15:20 Explosions at Dematagoda (SLST UTC+05:30)
Target	Christians and tourists
Attack type	Suicide bombings
Deaths	290+
Injured	appr. 500
Perpetrators	National Thowheeth Jama'ath
Motive	Islamic terrorism

On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches across Sri Lanka and three luxury hotels in the commercial capital Colombo were bombed. Later that day, there were smaller explosions at a housing complex and a guest house. Several cities in Sri Lanka were targeted. At least 290 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 and Kingsbury 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.

Background

Seventy percent of Sri Lanka's population are Buddhist and 9.7% of Sri Lankans are Muslim. Around 7.4% of the Sri Lankan population are Christians, of which 82% are Roman Catholics who trace their religious heritage directly to the Portuguese. Sri Lankan Tamil Catholics attribute their religious heritage to St. Francis Xavier as well as Portuguese missionaries. The remaining Christians are evenly split between the Anglican Church of Ceylon and other Protestant denominations. This was the first time since 2009, the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War, that the country had experienced a major terrorist attack.

During the 2010s, a low but persisting number of attacks and threats were made against Christian congregations and individuals, as well 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.

Attacks

Christians were celebrating Easter Sunday services when the bombings took place, targeting churches and hotels around Sri Lanka. At least two of the bombings are believed to have been caused by suicide bombers. It was reported that the sequence and timing of the bombings—which were not all simultaneous—appeared to be planned to cause maximum destruction, targeting Christians during mass services across the island, and targeting guests at the height of breakfast in luxurious beachfront hotels in the capital.

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 raised.

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

Churches

The Catholic Shrine of St. Anthony in Kotahena, Colombo, was the first to be hit, followed by the Catholic Church of St. Sebastian in Negombo. Sri Lankan news media reported at least 93 people killed at St. Sebastian's.

The Zion Church in Batticaloa, a Protestant congregation, was also bombed. Local news reported at least 27 killed in Batticaloa, with 9 of these reported by a police official to be tourists. A hospital official in the region said that more than 300 people had been admitted following the explosion.

Hotels

Three 5-star hotels on the beachfront in central Colombo were attacked around the same time as the churches: the Shangri-La Hotel, the Cinnamon Grand Hotel and The Kingsbury.

The Shangri-La bomber struck at 08:57 hours (UTC+05:30) during breakfast in the Table One Restaurant on the hotel's third floor, which was reportedly full of foreign tourists who made up the bulk of the hotel's clientele.

The suicide bomber who struck at the Taprobane restaurant in the Cinnamon Grand hotel checked into the hotel with a fake name the night prior, under the false pretense of a business trip. Carrying a plate, the bomber entered the queue of the packed restaurant's breakfast buffet the next morning and detonated explosives strapped to his back as he was about to be served. One of the hotel's managers who was present welcoming guests was among those killed instantly.

The reception hall of a guest house near the National Zoological Gardens of Sri Lanka, the Tropical Inn Hotel in Dehiwala, was also attacked later in the day, with two deaths reported.

Residences

More bombings occurred later in the day when police began to search suspects' houses in the suburbs of Colombo; a suicide bombing was carried out at a housing complex in Dematagoda killing three police officers: a sub-inspector and two constables.

Aftermath

On 22 April 2019, the Sri Lankan government declared a state of emergency from midnight after the imposing of a new curfew and the government also further announced that it would hold the national day of mourning, the following day.

The government closed facilities for security; the Defence Ministry issued a curfew starting at 18:00 local time on the day of the attacks, and imposed a temporary social media ban, whilst the Minister of Education, Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, had all schools closed for the following two days. The Colombo Stock Exchange announced that its operations will be temporarily suspended following the terror attacks, not opening as planned on 22 April 2019.

Thwarted attacks

An improvised explosive device (IED) in the form of a PVC pipe 1.8 metres (5.9 ft) in length possibly filled with RDX was found near the Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo and was dismantled by the Sri Lankan Air Force.

Police found three other bombs near the Dr. Neville Fernando Hospital.

Victims

Victim and missing number by nationality

Nationality	Killed	Wounded	Missing
Sri Lanka	251	472+
United Kingdom	8	1+
India	8
United States	4
Denmark	3	0
Australia	2	2
Spain	2	0
Turkey	2	0
China	1	5	5
Japan	1	4
Bangladesh	1	1
France	1	0
Netherlands	1	0
Portugal	1	0
Italy	0	1
Morocco	0	1
Saudi Arabia	?	0	2
Unknown	4
Total	290	500+	7

290 people were killed and at least 500 injured, some critically. The majority of the dead are Sri Lankans, with at least 39 foreigners among the dead; the confirmed foreign casualties include eight British (two of whom also carried American citizenship), eight Indians, four Americans, three Danes, two Australians, two Turks, two Spanish, a Chinese, a Bangladeshi, a French, a Dutch, a Japanese and a Portuguese citizen. Five Chinese and two Saudi nationals are missing.

Shantha Mayadunne, a Sri Lankan TV chef, was among the dead. The three Danish dead were three of the four children of Anders Holch Povlsen, CEO of Danish clothing retailer Bestseller. The Bangladeshi victims were members of the Sheikh–Wazed family, the deceased was a Bangladeshi politician and the injured man is his father. Four Indian politicians of the secular Janata Dal party were also killed. At least six of the foreign deaths were children.

Perpetrators

Local police arrested eight people residing in the Dematagoda suburb the day of the attacks. Five more suspected attackers and accomplices were arrested at a house during the night. Police confirmed the day after the bombings that 24 people were arrested. Three police officers and two civilians were killed by bombs that exploded during the captures. Seven suicide bombers were involved in the attacks.

Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne confirmed that all of the bombers were Sri Lankan citizens associated with National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ), a local militant radical Islamist group, but foreign links are suspected. There has been no claim of responsibility. NTJ's leadership had been condemned by several Sri Lankan Muslim organisations in 2016 for advocating extreme fundamentalist indoctrination of children and for clashes with Buddhist monks, and was linked in 2018 to vandalism of Buddhist statues following anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka's Minister of Telecommunication Harin Fernando had tweeted that Police Chief Pujuth Jayasundara sent an alert by his Deputy Inspector General Priyalal Dissanayake dated 11 April 2019 relaying an Indian intelligence report from 4 April that suicide bombers affiliated with NTJ planned to attack prominent churches and the Indian embassy in Colombo. After initial government denials of the alert's authenticity, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe stated that "information was there," about the attacks, and that his government must "look into why adequate precautions were not taken." The Defense Minister had earlier requested that the media not publish the names of the attackers, and said the government believes the attacks were carried out by a single group of religious extremists.

The bomber at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel was a guest who registered under the name of "Mohamed Azzam Mohamed" and gave a false address. The Shangri-La Hotel bomber was identified by police as Insan Seelavan, a factory owner, nine of whose employees have been arrested.

Reactions

Domestic responses

Leaders of the country condemned the attacks: President Maithripala Sirisena said "I have given instructions to take very stern action against the persons who are responsible for this conspiracy", the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said "I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today, Opposition Leader and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa called the attacks "absolutely barbaric" and said that the nation will stand united as one against "acts of terrorism", and Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera described the attacks as a "well co-ordinated attempt to create murder, mayhem and anarchy".

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Ranjith, said "It’s a very very sad day for all of us. I wish therefore to express my deepest sorrow and sympathy [...] I condemn to the utmost of my capacity this act that has caused so much death and suffering to the people." Following the attack, the Archbishop's House in Colombo cancelled all Catholic Easter services planned for the evening of Easter Sunday.

International responses

Numerous world leaders expressed condolences and condemnation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered to send humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka.

Religious leaders

Representatives and leaders of the main world religions responded with prayers and support for the victims.

Olav Fykse Tveit, the general secretary of the ecumenical World Council of Churches (WCC) expressed his condolences, saying "As a global fellowship of churches, we stand in special solidarity with the Christians of Sri Lanka who have been attacked in this vicious way." The WCC strongly condemned the attack and offered prayers for the victims and their families.

During his Urbi et Orbi address in St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis said "I wish to express my heartfelt closeness to the Christian community [of Sri Lanka], wounded as it was gathered in prayer, and to all the victims of such cruel violence."

Yousef al-Othaimeen, secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, condemned the attacks, expressing solidarity with the victims and calling for "international solidarity in the fight against the scourge of terrorism".

Condolences were also offered by the leaders of the Anglican, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Lutheran, and Orthodox churches.

See also

• Christianity in Sri Lanka
• List of non-state terrorist incidents in Sri Lanka
• List of terrorist incidents in April 2019
• Terrorism in Sri Lanka
• List of Islamist terrorist attacks

External links

• Timeline of events, Roar Media
• Timeline of events, The Guardian