Sri Lanka on Tuesday commemorated the first anniversary of the Easter Sunday bomb attacks that killed nearly 260 people, including 11 Indians, in one of the country's worst terror incidents.
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 258 people and injuring over 500 on the Easter Sunday on April 21, 2019.
Sri Lankan police have arrested over 200 suspects in connection with the bombings.
Amidst the lockdown to combat the coronavirus, the Sri Lankan government on Tuesday urged all Sri Lankans to commemorate those who were killed and affected by the terror attacks by lighting a candle in their memory, Colombo Gazette reported.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in his message of commemoration, said he remembers with deep sorrow, the brutal Easter Sunday terrorist attacks one year ago.
The President called on all citizens to remember the Sri Lankan and Foreign nationals who were killed, wounded and disabled in this attack, by lighting a candle and observing a minute's silence at 8.45 am, it said.
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The blasts targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, 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 reported from three five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury in Colombo.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said today marks a year to the deadliest suicide bombings that shook Sri Lanka claiming innocent lives.
He said while we remember the lives lost, injured and the families that are still trying to cope, we ensure the borders of Sri Lanka will never see such acts of cowardice ever again.
The Intelligence Service of a friendly nation had provided advance warning to the then Sri Lankan Government of the possible dates and targets for the attacks, including names, addresses and identity cards of the terrorists involved. This attack could have been prevented, Mahinda said.
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital said, "Our challenge would be to work amicably with all our fellow citizens and to ensure a spirit of true acceptance and integration within the national fabric of cultures for a peaceful and prosperous new Sri Lanka free of all divisions and petty mindedness."