Five years of Easter bombings: Indian envoy to Sri Lanka attends prayer meet at Anthony’s Shrine
| 2024-04-21
Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Santosh Jha at Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo on April 21, 2024
A series of blasts had ripped through churches and hotels, killing at least 269 people, including 45 foreigners in Colombo in 2019
While standing in solidarity with victims of the ghastly Easter bombings in Sri Lanka, Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Santosh Jha attended the prayer ceremony at St Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo on Sunday.
“In memory of victims of the tragic Easter Sunday bombings, HC@santjha attended the prayer ceremony at Anthony’s Shrine. India stands in solidarity with victims of the attack & with the people of Sri Lanka. We condemn terrorism in all its forms & manifestations anywhere, everywhere,” Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka said in its post on X on Sunday.
On April 21, 2019, a series of blasts ripped through churches and hotels in Colombo, killing at least 269 people, including 45 foreigners and injuring hundreds. Three churches, St Anthony’s Shrine, St Sebastian’s church and Zion church and three luxury hotels in the Sri Lankan capital were targeted in a series of coordinated terrorist suicide bombings.
As per media reports, local religious extremist group the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) inspired by the ISIL, had carried out suicide bombings in Sri Lanka, shaking the island nation’s peacetime limbo for the first time since the end of the civil war in 2009.
Last year, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court ruled that the country’s top officials, including the then-President, had been negligent in failing to prevent the bombings.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has urged an independent probe with international help to establish the full circumstances of the bombings.
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