Easter Sunday Attacks

(UCAN ) Catholics in Sri Lanka have protested after a stone was allegedly thrown at a statue of St. Sebastian at a church where more than 100 people died in the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks. Police and soldiers were deployed to Katuwapitiya on Aug. 6 when about 100 protesters gathered outside St. Sebastian’s Church to demand […]

CID Director SSP Shani Abeysekera. Picture by Gayan Pushpika, DN. Senior Superintendent of Police Shani Abeysekera, Director of the Criminal Investigation Department told the Parliament Select Committee on the Easter bombings yesterday that extensive investigations into the activities of Zahran Hashim by the CID had led them to Lactowatte, where the haul of explosives found […]

FILE PHOTO: A nun arrives as a Sri Lanka’s commando soldier stands guard in front of the main entrance to St. Lucia Cathedral as survivors and families of victims of Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday bombing arrive for a special mass for those who lost their lives, in Colombo, Sri Lanka May 11, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte/File […]

In the midst of the ongoing sittings of the Parliamentary Select Committee to investigate the Easter Sunday bombings two senior officials in the public service have been arrested by the police. The charges against former Defense Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara are that they did not take sufficient action to […]

Image: Sri Lankan security officers inspect vandalized shops owned by Muslims in Minuwangoda, a suburb of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Tuesday, May 14, 2019.  © 2019 AP Photo/Chamila Karunarathne (New York) – Authorities in Sri Lanka should end arbitrary arrests and other abuses against Muslims and appropriately protect the community from violence, Human Rights Watch said today. Since the Easter […]

Background: The Easter Sunday terrorist attacks have drastically changed Sri Lanka’s social and political fabric. Over the existing ethnic polarization, Sri Lanka now faces polarization on the grounds of religion. On 21st April 2019, 08 suicide bombers led explosions in Sri Lanka killing 252 people and injuring hundreds. Two Catholic churches, one Zion church, and […]

Citra Abbott and Matthias Böhnke. ‘Everyone knows that somewhere out there extremely dangerous people are running around who could attack again at any time’ Many Christians in Sri Lanka are still too scared to go to church – in spite of security put in place following the Easter Day bombings. Returning from a fact-finding and […]

Image; Mazahina, left, pictured with her husband, was arrested over a pattern on one of her dresses which was wrongly believed to resemble the dharmachakra, a Buddhist symbol [Lisa Fuller/Al Jazeera] by Lisa Fuller & Rukshana Rizwie . Hasalaka, Sri Lanka – On May 17, police in central Sri Lanka arrested Abdul Raheem Mazahina, a soft-spoken 47-year-old grandmother, because […]

Social media has revolutionized society. With creative and improved means of communication, live updates become freely accessible, news is as close to you as the play button on your screen, images and messages circulate between millions of people around the world within seconds, and as a result people are now more instantly up to date, […]

Image: Prof. S.R.H. Hoole speaking wearing a Sufi hat in solidarity with Sufi Muslims. GA and District Secretary Vedanayahan, Prabhus assembled here, including women, friends: When I accepted appointment as a Member of the Commission, it was on a happy day. We had come out of a hellish, brutish period when many men and women had been […]

Cabinet approval has been granted to amend the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code to take action against false news distribution, extremist statements and any statement that could be harmful to the national security. The government Information Dept web site English gives a sumarised version of the related cabinet decision on 04.06.2019. 15, Revision […]

 in the supreme court of the democratic socialist republic of sri lanka In the matter of an application under and in terms of Articles 17, 35 and 126 of the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka Pujith Jayasundara Inspector General of Police No. 125, WijeramaRoad, Colombo 07. PETITIONER vs. 1A. Hon. Attorney General (in […]

For as long as Sri Lanka has been an independent and sovereign nation, our people have been torn between two opposing political forces. This is the battle between the politics of unity and politics of division. To unite peoples across religious, ethnic and geographical lines requires moral courage and national vision. Unfortunately, many who have […]

Image: Ceylon Chamber of Commerce deeply concerned about the possibility that events that threaten the law and order situation in the country, will unfold and this concern stems from positions taken and utterances made very recently by certain parties. Jun 03, 2019 (LBO) – Ceylon Chamber of Commerce has sent a missive to the Ministry of […]

Image: Muslim ministers speaking at a press conference, announcing their resignation. ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Muslim ministers have resigned protesting rising hate and harassment of their community, despite helping security forces apprehend Islamist extremists who carried out suicide bombings. At least nine ministers and deputies will resign but will remain in the backbenches, they said. […]

Media Release/2019 June  03. The Free Media Movement strongly condemns the abrupt suspension of the Parliament Select Committee (PSC) live proceedings, which was probing the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks since it is a violation of people’s right to information. There is great apprehension and concern among the public about the failure to prevent these attacks despite the intelligence information […]

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s police chief Pujith Jayasundera, now on compulsory leave, following Easter Sunday bomb attacks, has petitioned the Supreme Court alleging he was kept out of national security council meetings after October 2018, and he was offered a diplomatic post if he resigned. A Deputy Inspector General who was head of State Intelligence […]

In the face of the damage to life and property caused by the terrorist attacks on 21st April 2019, it is the duty of the state to support the victims with rebuilding and restoring their lives to normalcy. While their loss and pain cannot be erased, every effort must be made to ensure that these […]

When bombs planted in churches and hotels killed more than 200 people in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, few had realised that the nation had a problem with Islamist militancy. One man who did, reports the BBC’s Secunder Kermani, was Mohammad Razak Taslim. Lying on a hospital bed, Mohammad Razak Taslim’s face contorts with pain. […]

Speaking at a journalism training workshop in Matale on 23rd May Chairman of Sri Lanka Press Council (SLPC) Attorney-at-law Koggala Wellala Bandula  has said that to control social media in Sri Lanka a tough law on the lines of controversial The Protection From Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Bill adopted by Singapore is being proposed.  Koggala Wellala Bandula […]

(Reuters) In Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, a lane that used to be alive with the sound of children playing is silent. An entire family, including three children, died in an explosion at St Anthony’s Church on Easter Sunday, one of a series of coordinated attacks by suicide bombers that killed more than 250 people. An […]

by Melani Manel Perera. Television operators invade the homes and privacy of survivors, they “must be educated in communications ethics”. A comment posted on Facebook sparks new violence against Muslims in Chilaw. Survivors must be supported in the long run by specialist groups. Taking care of even the first responders, priests and nuns included. Colombo […]

Human societies scattered across the world have evolved over time under diverse circumstances, both material/ecological and ideational. Though archaeologists, historians and philosophers have gone far back in time in tracing the above process, modern social and human scientists have observed human societies in more recent times and uncovered certain patterns in the way they have […]

CPA Press Statement on Incidents of Communal Violence in May 2019Categories:All Documents Press Releases/13.May 2019. The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) is alarmed by the increased spate of communal violence against the Muslim community since the Easter Sunday attacks of 21 April 2019. Recent and ongoing incidents in Negombo, Chilaw, Kurunagala, Kuliyapitiya, Hettipola, Dummalasuriya, Rasnayakapura, […]

Abbraar Masjid mosque is seen after a mob attack in Kiniyama, Sri Lanka May 13, 2019.   | Photo Credit: Reuters. Meera Srinivasan. Police impose island-wide curfew till Tuesday morning amid fears of escalation in violence. Mobs attacked several mosques, torched dozens of shops and homes of Muslims in Kurunegala District, some 100 km north-west of […]

In the old story of the New Testament, Easter was the end of agony. It marked the glory of resurrection, yet another fable in humankind’s vain attempt to get past death. In Post- Easter Sri Lanka, on the other hand,there is no glory, only agony; endless questions and loads of blame. Who is to blame? […]

The Government last week moved to prohibit security forces from taking news media cameras on search operations around the country in the wake of the Easter Sunday bombings that killed 258 people. For weeks, the news cycle has been dominated by SMS alerts and sustained nightly news bulletins that feature 10 minute segments on the […]

In a strange twist, the Free Media Movement of Sri Lanka, which has been in slumber while mainstream media of the country were propagating anti-minority sentiments after Easter Sunday attacks, has now come out opposing requests made by the government  asking not to publish  unnecessary photographs and unconfirmed reports in relation to ongoing security operations. […]

A request has been made not to telecast the occasions when the security forces conduct search operations in houses and public places through the media. Furthermore, clear instructions have been given by President Maithripala Sirisena to the security forces not to allow participation of journalists and civilians when conducting search operations and it has to […]

Sri Lanka’s battle against Islamic extremism would involve two integral parts: (a) an intelligence driven kinetic approach to flush out, arrest or neutralize violent extremists; and (b) a State facilitated and community- led approach to combat non-violent extremism, reverse the spread of Wahhabism and Arabization of local Muslims and restore the primacy of moderate Sufi […]