Sri Lanka to seek UK assistance to probe Easter Sunday attacks
Sri Lanka is to seek assistance from the UK to investigate the Easter Sunday attacks.
Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe said that the absence of a proper investigation into the Easter Sunday attacks meant that the issue has still not been fully resolved.
In a special statement, Acting President Wickremesinghe said that due to the incomplete nature of the investigations into the Easter Sunday attacks, he is requesting the assistance of the UK Government and their intelligence services.
On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches in Sri Lanka and three luxury hotels in the commercial capital, Colombo, were targeted in a series of coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide bombings.
Later that day, there were smaller explosions at a housing complex in Dematagoda and a guest house in Dehiwala.
A total of 269 people were killed, including at least 45 foreign nationals, three police officers, and eight bombers, and at least 500 were injured.
The church bombings were carried out during Easter services in Negombo, Batticaloa and Colombo; the hotels that were bombed were the Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand, Kingsbury and Tropical Inn.
According to the State Intelligence Service, a second wave of attacks was planned, but was stopped as a result of government raids.
According to Sri Lankan government officials, all eight of the suicide bombers in the attacks were Sri Lankan citizens associated with National Thowheeth Jama’ath, a local militant Islamist group with suspected foreign ties. (Colombo Gazette)
