Sri Lankan Christians fear churches as Easter blasts investigation continues

Churches across Sri Lanka remained silent on Sunday mass and the Archbishop of Colombo delivered a televised special sermon from a chapel at his home, a week after multiple blasts torn through the island nation claiming 253 lives.

The government has said the attacks were carried out by nine well-educated Sri Lankans, eight of whom have been identified. Authorities have detained more than 100 people, including foreigners from Syria and Egypt, since the bombings in three churches and four hotels, most of which were in the capital.

Sri Lanka's Christian community, which comes out to be a minority in Buddhist-dominated nation, is being afraid to go to the churches after deadly attacks that hit Easter services. For some in the shaken Christian community, the attacks also raise the spectre of more widespread communal violence.

Most of the victims were Sri Lankans. The dead also included 40 foreigners, including British, U.S., Australian, Turkish, Indian, Chinese, Danish, Dutch and Portuguese nationals.

Minorities fear communal violence

According to census data, 70.2 per cent of Sri Lankans identifies as Buddhist, 12 per cent Hindu, 9.7 per cent Muslim, and 7.4 per cent Christian. It is estimated that 82 per cent of Sri Lankan Christians are Roman Catholic.

The suicide bomb attacks were the worst atrocity in Sri Lanka since the country's 37-year conflict with Tamil rebels ended a decade ago. Sri Lanka's Christians, who make up just seven per cent of the 21-million population, had been largely spared the worst of the country's violence, including recent tensions between right-wing Buddhists and Muslims.

In March 2018, a state of emergency was declared after hardline members of the majority Buddhist Sinhala community attacked mosques and Muslim-owned properties.

However, a small group of Buddhist monks are tried to spread the message of peace by visiting the historic Catholic church located at Kochchikade, just a day after a suicide bomber triggered a huge blast, killing many worshippers.

Islamic State claim twists investigation

Authorities have so far focused their investigations on international links to two domestic groups they believe carried out the attacks, NTJ and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim. But Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday bombings, without providing any evidence, and on Saturday it issued a new claim for a gunbattle that erupted on the east coast on Friday during a raid by security forces on a safe house.

It said three of its members clashed with Sri Lankan police for several hours before detonating their explosive vests during the gunbattle, the militant group's news agency Amaq said. The group said 17 policemen were killed or injured in the attack. It did not give any evidence.