Sri Lanka's Catholic church unhappy with pace of probe into Easter Sunday bombings

Sri Lankas Catholic church on Thursday charged the government with going slow on the investigation of the 2019 Easter Sunday suicide bombings that killed 270 people, including nine Indians, and demanded justice for the victims.

Sri Lanka's Catholic church on Thursday charged the government with going slow on the investigation of the 2019 Easter Sunday suicide bombings that killed 270 people, including nine Indians, and demanded justice for the victims. Nine suicide bombers, belonging to local Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jamaat (NTJ) linked to ISIS, carried out a series of blasts that tore through three churches and as many luxury hotels in Sri Lanka, killing over 270 people and injuring more than 500 people on April 21, 2019. The local Catholic church has reiterated its demand for justice in the attack, asserting that politics must not be played in the matter. ''If anyone tried to ride to power over the blood of the innocent victims, they would not be able to freely enjoy that power. People (the victims) who have been living happily are now made to suffer in life's darkness,'' said Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo and the head of the local Catholic Church, during a special mass held at St Anthony's Church here marking the 30th month after the attack. St Anthony's Church was one of the places targeted by the terrorists. Cardinal Ranjith said two years had passed yet it was still unknown as to who was behind the attack. The National Thawheed Jamaat was blamed for the attack, however identities of terror handlers behind the scenes and their whereabouts are unknown. Similarly, persons responsible for the state machinery failing are still unknown. The church official said he had received information that top defence officials were trying to hide the truth.

Cardinal Ranjith further charged that the recommendations of a presidential probe commission have not been fully implemented. Meanwhile, Minister in-charge of Police Sarath Weerasekera, in a statement issued later, said nine cases have been filed in the high court against over 50 individuals in the Easter bombings case. A trial at the bar proceedings is underway with daily hearings, he added. The government has several times denied lethargy in the investigation, saying nearly 700 people have been arrested and the due legal procedures are in place.

Apart from St Anthony's Church in Colombo, the blasts targeted St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and a church in the eastern town of Batticaloa when the Easter Sunday mass was in progress. Three explosions were also reported in three five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury in Colombo.

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