Sri Lanka: Catholic services suspended for second weekend

Catholic services in Sri Lanka are being cancelled for the second weekend after authorities warned people for more possible attacks in the terror-hit island nation. The development comes days after it was announced that public mass would resume from May 5.

On April 21, suicide bombers attacked three churches and three hotels across Sri Lanka. Soon after, the U.S. Embassy in Colombo warned against attending services at any place of worship in the multiethnic nation of 21 million Buddhists, Christians, Hindus and Muslims. Catholic leaders then closed all their churches. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, celebrated Mass this past Sunday at his residence, with the country's leaders attending.

"His eminence the Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has instructed that Sunday masses should not be held this week," Reverend Edmund Thilakaratne the spokesman for the Archbishop's House Reverend Edmund Thilakaratne said. On April 30, Cardinal Ranjith said that public mass in Sri Lanka would resume since the attack in certain Catholic churches from May 5 and no bags will be allowed inside as part of the tight security measures.

On Wednesday, Sri Lanka's intelligence agency warned the country's top leadership not to travel together during the coming few weeks after information was received of possible terror attacks. Over 1,000 suspects linked to the local radical Muslim group National Thowheeth Jamaath (NTJ) have been arrested. The office of Sri Lanka President, in a statement issued on Sunday, further banned all kinds of face covers, including burqas, on the security grounds post the Easter Sunday blasts.