https://www.scmp.com/rss/500614/feed A string of bomb blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on April 21, 2019, killing at least 310 people. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com The United Nations on Sunday urged Sri Lanka to bridge its “accountability deficit” and ensure justice as the country commemorated the 279 victims of its worst-ever attack against civilians five years ago. The UN’s top envoy to the country, Marc-Andre Franche, told a remembrance service in Colombo that there should be a “thorough and transparent investigation” to uncover those behind the Easter carnage in 2019. Islamist bombers hit three churches and three hotels in the island’s deadliest... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3259795/sri-lanka-marks-5-years-hundreds-died-easter-bombings-un-calls-justice?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3259795/sri-lanka-marks-5-years-hundreds-died-easter-bombings-un-calls-justice?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 21 Apr 2024 07:35:56 +0000 Sri Lanka’s president said on Sunday that he will appoint a committee chaired by a retired Supreme Court judge to investigate allegations made in a British television report that the South Asian country’s intelligence was complicit in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 269 people. The attacks, which included simultaneous suicide bombings, targeted three churches and three tourist hotels. The dead included 42 foreigners from 14 countries. President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s decision to... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3234054/sri-lanka-probe-allegations-intelligence-complicity-2019-bombings?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3234054/sri-lanka-probe-allegations-intelligence-complicity-2019-bombings?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 10 Sep 2023 14:11:51 +0000 Almost four years ago, Rupika Rosairo’s two daughters left the family home near Colombo in their Sunday best to attend Easter mass with their grandmother. But that evening, her 13-year-old younger daughter returned home in a coffin. Rosairo’s children were victims of Sri Lanka’s Easter bombings that killed more than 260 people and injured some 400, after eight local Islamist militants blew up three churches and hotels in a coordinated terrorist attack. Evidence later came to light that the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3216323/sri-lanka-must-find-out-truth-2019-easter-blasts-say-survivors-and-families-victims?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3216323/sri-lanka-must-find-out-truth-2019-easter-blasts-say-survivors-and-families-victims?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 09 Apr 2023 03:00:24 +0000 Sri Lanka holds a special place in Hyun Chang Chung’s heart, for two contrasting reasons. Firstly, his daughter was conceived there, and secondly, he was caught in the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, when he and his wife returned there to mark their child’s first birthday. It was with this emotional connection in mind that he decided to run the newly minted 300-kilometre Pekoe Trail. The trail is split into 22 stages, each designed to take one day. But Hong Kong-based Chung, 49, finished it in just 58... https://www.scmp.com/sport/outdoor/trail-running/article/3212819/hong-kong-runner-completes-sri-lankas-22-day-pekoe-trail-just-58-hours?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/sport/outdoor/trail-running/article/3212819/hong-kong-runner-completes-sri-lankas-22-day-pekoe-trail-just-58-hours?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 08 Mar 2023 10:58:52 +0000 Pope Francis urged Sri Lankan authorities on Monday to reveal who was behind the country’s 2019 Easter bombings in an attack the island’s Catholics suspect was a plot to propel President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to power. While meeting with a delegation of over 60 victims of the Easter Sunday attacks on three churches and three hotels that killed 279 people, Francis asked Rajapaksa’s administration to reveal the truth. “Please, out of love for justice, out of love for your people, let it be made clear... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3175487/pope-asks-sri-lanka-reveal-easter-2019-bombers-over-political?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3175487/pope-asks-sri-lanka-reveal-easter-2019-bombers-over-political?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Apr 2022 14:57:46 +0000 Anger is boiling over in Sri Lanka at the country’s worst economic crisis since independence in 1948, much of it directed at the island nation’s all-powerful Rajapaksa family. Late Thursday hundreds of people tried to storm the home of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the current president and one of four politically active brothers. In a night of violence one person was injured and 45 were arrested. Here is a profile of the clan, which has held sway over the nation’s politics for decades and which returned... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3172794/meet-sri-lankas-all-powerful-rajapaksas-under-fire-amid?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3172794/meet-sri-lankas-all-powerful-rajapaksas-under-fire-amid?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Apr 2022 11:06:28 +0000 A Sri Lankan court on Monday ordered the release of a lawyer arrested over his alleged ties to the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings and held for nearly two years on charges rights groups say lacked evidence. Hejaaz Hizbullah was arrested in April 2020 on suspicion of being linked to the devastating series of attacks on churches and hotels that left 279 people dead. But after prosecutors failed to provide evidence of his involvement in the attacks, blamed on a local jihadist group, he was instead... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3166135/sri-lanka-free-rights-lawyer-detained-over-easter-sunday-2019?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3166135/sri-lanka-free-rights-lawyer-detained-over-easter-sunday-2019?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 07 Feb 2022 11:22:01 +0000 Sri Lankan police on Saturday arrested a prominent Muslim lawmaker and his brother over suspected connections to the Easter Sunday suicide bombings in 2019 that killed 269 people. Rishad Bathiudeen is a former Cabinet minister who currently leads an opposition party in Sri Lanka’s Parliament. He and his brother, Reyaj Bathiudeen, were arrested in the capital for allegedly “aiding and abetting the suicide bombers who committed the Easter Sunday carnage”, said police spokesman Ajith Rohana. He... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3130926/sri-lanka-arrests-muslim-leader-over-2019-easter-attacks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3130926/sri-lanka-arrests-muslim-leader-over-2019-easter-attacks?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Apr 2021 07:05:10 +0000 Sri Lanka will reopen its borders to foreign tourists this week after a 10-month hiatus, officials said, with travellers subject to tough Covid-19 protocols. The announcement came despite a surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths, as authorities sought to revive a once-lucrative tourism sector devastated by the deadly 2019 Easter bombings and the pandemic. “Every precautionary measure has been set in place to make the island getaway as safe, secure and serene as possible for visitors,” the Sri Lanka... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3118299/tough-coronavirus-restrictions-tourists-sri-lanka-country?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3118299/tough-coronavirus-restrictions-tourists-sri-lanka-country?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 19 Jan 2021 12:15:08 +0000 Sri Lankans shrugged off fears of coronavirus and streamed into polling centres on Wednesday to elect a new parliament that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa hopes will clear the way for him to boost his powers. The tourism-dependent island nation of 21 million people has been struggling since deadly East Sunday attacks on hotels and churches by Islamist militants last year were followed by lockdowns to slow the spread of the pandemic. Can Sri Lanka avoid getting caught up in China-India... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3096178/sri-lanka-heads-polls-amid-pandemic-china-friendly-rajapaksa?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3096178/sri-lanka-heads-polls-amid-pandemic-china-friendly-rajapaksa?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 05 Aug 2020 11:59:56 +0000 Sri Lanka is seeking a loan of nearly US$1 billion from China for energy and motorways as the island recovers from the devastating Easter Sunday bombings, the finance ministry said on Thursday. Talks are underway with China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to raise the new loan in addition to the US$1.2 billion obtained from international agencies this year, the ministry said. “We have been discussing with the AIIB to obtain nearly an additional US$1,000 million for further... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3015428/sri-lanka-seeks-us1-billion-loan-china-it-struggles-recover?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3015428/sri-lanka-seeks-us1-billion-loan-china-it-struggles-recover?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 20 Jun 2019 13:24:29 +0000 Five Sri Lankans wanted in connection with the Easter bombings that killed 258 people were arrested in Saudi Arabia and extradited Friday, police and Interpol said. “One of the alleged ringleaders in the April 21 bomb attacks in Sri Lanka has been arrested following the publication of an Interpol red notice,” the international police organisation, based in the French city of Lyon, said in a statement. A “red notice” is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3014630/saudi-arabia-extradites-five-sri-lankans-linked-easter-sunday?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3014630/saudi-arabia-extradites-five-sri-lankans-linked-easter-sunday?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Jun 2019 02:46:56 +0000 Sri Lanka’s president has sacked the national intelligence chief and will not cooperate with a parliamentary investigation into security lapses before the Easter suicide bombings, officials said Saturday. Maithripala Sirisena summoned an emergency meeting of his cabinet on Friday night to oppose the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) probing the April 21 attacks that killed 258 people and wounded nearly 500. Chief of National Intelligence Sisira Mendis was sacked after testifying to the... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3013661/sri-lanka-president-maithripala-sirisena-vows-block-easter?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3013661/sri-lanka-president-maithripala-sirisena-vows-block-easter?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Jun 2019 04:25:12 +0000 Rarely have Sri Lankan Muslims faced the level of persecution they are facing now. They have been besieged and cowed from the moment suicide bombers, apparently doing the work of Islamic State, blew themselves up in three churches and three luxury hotels in Colombo, claiming over 200 lives on Easter Sunday. On Monday, all Muslim ministers and Muslim Ministers of State – along with two Muslim Provincial Governors – resigned from their posts, saying the government could now investigate whether any... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3013095/anxiety-fear-guilt-bleak-eid-every-muslim-minister-sri-lanka?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3013095/anxiety-fear-guilt-bleak-eid-every-muslim-minister-sri-lanka?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Jun 2019 13:30:13 +0000 Every year, I spend a few days in the hills of Kandy, Sri Lanka, to escape the madding crowd of Hong Kong and to write in relative tranquillity. This time, my trip feels different. Where are the foreign tourists? The answer is obvious but the implications of the answer are less so. The foreigners are absent because of the Islamist bombings on Easter Sunday that killed over 250 people and wounded around 500 others. Terrorism has been defined as a practice that deters people – out of fear – from... https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3012621/terrorists-win-if-tourists-stay-away-sri-lanka?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3012621/terrorists-win-if-tourists-stay-away-sri-lanka?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Jun 2019 09:00:13 +0000 “I love you so, so, so much,” writes seven-year-old Sethumdi in a text message to her half-sister Keana. They have the same father and were born just three months apart. But they are now more than 12,000km away from each other, because Keana and her mother, Vanessa Mae Rodel, flew to Canada in March after being granted asylum. Sethumdi, who remains in Hong Kong with her parents and little brother – all asylum seekers – dreams about Keana’s life. In video chats, she admires Keana’s new bedroom... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3012165/we-dont-have-life-here-family-snowden-refugees-torn-apart-canada?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3012165/we-dont-have-life-here-family-snowden-refugees-torn-apart-canada?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 May 2019 22:00:10 +0000 A violent strain of Islam born from radicals exploiting a central tenet of the religion, known as tawhid, has come under the spotlight as Sri Lankan police continue to investigate the perpetrators of the Easter Sunday bombings on churches and hotels. About 100 people have been arrested since last month’s attacks, which have been blamed on two groups – the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) and the Jamathei Millathu Ibrahim (JMI). Both have been outlawed by authorities. Not much was known about the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3010472/truth-about-tawhid-how-violent-strain-islam-linked-sri-lanka?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3010472/truth-about-tawhid-how-violent-strain-islam-linked-sri-lanka?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 May 2019 06:58:45 +0000 Sri Lankan authorities have arrested a Saudi-educated scholar for what they claim are links with Zahran Hashim, the suspected ringleader of the Easter Sunday bombings, throwing a spotlight on the rising influence of Salafi-Wahhabi Islam on the island’s Muslims. Mohamed Aliyar, 60, is the founder of the Centre for Islamic Guidance, which boasts a mosque, a religious school and a library in Zahran’s hometown of Kattankudy, a Muslim-dominated city on Sri Lanka’s eastern shores. “Information has... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3009906/sri-lankas-saudi-connections-revealed-latest-arrest-over?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3009906/sri-lankas-saudi-connections-revealed-latest-arrest-over?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 May 2019 09:04:27 +0000 It’s tense in Sri Lanka nowadays. Scarcely a day passes that the army does not discover a cache of arms, ammunition or other combat related material, such as radio-frequency jammers, in a mosque or nearby one. Even in a country almost inured to violence due to the nearly 30-year conflict between armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), such discoveries have left people stunned with fear because of what they suggest: “terror” and “Islamic State”. So when a minor traffic... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3009577/voice-nation-sri-lanka-loses-faith-government-it-looks-cardinal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3009577/voice-nation-sri-lanka-loses-faith-government-it-looks-cardinal?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 May 2019 00:00:16 +0000 Before jihadi bombers targeted Sri Lanka in deadly Easter attacks, Rangana Wijesuriya used to party until the small hours in the restaurants, bars and clubs of downtown Colombo. Now, after the April 21 attacks that killed 257 people, the buzz is gone. The DJs are performing to empty dance floors and the bar staff are bored. “It is usually really crowded and really noisy here. We were shocked to see that it is really empty,” says Wijesuriya, 26. “Usually when we come, we stay until morning and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3009480/how-colombo-nightlife-died-after-sri-lanka-terrorist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3009480/how-colombo-nightlife-died-after-sri-lanka-terrorist?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 May 2019 06:15:13 +0000 If Industry 4.0 is about how every device and industry is now connected, “Terrorism 4.0” is about how we are all now connected in a battlefield that looks to span the entire globe. This does not mean we are all soldiers in that war; it merely means we are all in the line of fire. Where terrorism was once predominantly about relatively localised violence in pursuit of relatively localised goals, it now does not seem to matter where the victims are located, as long as they fit a broad profile. If... https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3009354/line-fire-how-terrorism-links-world-internet-age?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3009354/line-fire-how-terrorism-links-world-internet-age?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 May 2019 00:30:11 +0000 A US official wounded in Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday suicide bombings has died in hospital, raising to 258 the total number killed, including 45 foreigners, officials said on Wednesday. Alaina Teplitz, the US ambassador to Sri Lanka, paid tribute to Chelsea Decaminada who was seriously wounded when two bombers hit the luxury Shangri-La hotel in Colombo on April 21. “We pay tribute to Chelsea – and all those lost and injured – by partnering with Sri Lanka and nations worldwide to bring unity in the... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3009471/us-official-chelsea-decaminada-wounded-sri-lankan-easter?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3009471/us-official-chelsea-decaminada-wounded-sri-lankan-easter?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 May 2019 04:10:08 +0000 Father Suranga Warnakulasuriya said prayers alone in his church on Sunday, as Catholic services were suspended across Sri Lanka for the second straight week since the Easter bomb attacks. With the army staging raids across the country and authorities maintaining high levels of security, the country’s 1.25 million Christians are still on edge after jihadist bombers killed 257 people. Warnakulasuriya has been saying mass in an empty church in Negombo, just north of the capital, every day since the... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3008909/sri-lanka-blasts-catholics-say-lonely-prayers-churches-remain?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3008909/sri-lanka-blasts-catholics-say-lonely-prayers-churches-remain?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 05 May 2019 09:04:49 +0000 As night fell on blood-soaked Sri Lanka following the carnage of Easter Sunday last month, police knocked on a door in an upscale neighbourhood – the home of two of the suicide bombers. They were greeted by Fatima Ibrahim, the pregnant wife of bomber Ilham Ibrahim. On seeing the police, she ran inside and detonated an explosive device, killing herself, her unborn child and her three sons aged five, four and nine months. Three police officers also died in the blast. In a similar case in March,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3008808/sri-lanka-indonesia-more-mothers-are-becoming-suicide-bombers-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3008808/sri-lanka-indonesia-more-mothers-are-becoming-suicide-bombers-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 05 May 2019 05:00:18 +0000 Sri Lanka’s Catholic cardinal received “foreign information” that attempts would be made this week to attack a church and another church institution, according to a letter he sent on Thursday to church officials that later appeared on social media. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo and an outspoken critic of the Sri Lankan government’s apparent failure to act on Indian government intelligence ahead of the Easter attacks, said in the letter that he was closing churches and... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3008646/new-sri-lanka-church-attacks-planned-cardinal-malcolm-ranjith?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3008646/new-sri-lanka-church-attacks-planned-cardinal-malcolm-ranjith?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 May 2019 18:31:55 +0000 Indian and Bangladeshi officials and security experts largely dismissed a fresh threat of violence from a media group aligned with Islamic State (Isis), insisting safety measures and surveillance are adequate to keep militants from carrying out a Sri Lanka-style attack elsewhere in South Asia. Al-Mursalat Media released a poster on Tuesday featuring a photo of five militants who carried out a 2016 attack at a cafe in the diplomatic enclave of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, according to global... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3008518/does-sri-lanka-attack-show-islamic-state-targeting-south-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3008518/does-sri-lanka-attack-show-islamic-state-targeting-south-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 May 2019 03:44:14 +0000 Four Hong Kong wildlife officers were among thousands of people from more than 180 countries forced to cancel or push back a trip to the world’s largest conference on endangered species, after terrorist attacks in the host country, Sri Lanka, caused its postponement. The World Wildlife Conference, a three-yearly, 12-day summit on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), was scheduled to begin on May 23 in the capital, Colombo. The conference,... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3008367/hong-kong-wildlife-officers-among-thousands?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3008367/hong-kong-wildlife-officers-among-thousands?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 01 May 2019 03:00:10 +0000 As Sri Lanka’s long civil war ended in this once-contested region along its eastern coast, Muslim women eager to show their piousness began wearing the black niqab veil to hide their faces. Now in the wake of Easter suicide attacks launched by Islamic State-linked militants that killed more than 250 people, Sri Lanka’s president has used his emergency powers to ban the practice previously unheard of in the island nation off the southern coast of India. The ban, which took effect on Monday, has... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3008247/sri-lanka-bans-niqab-veils-after-easter-attacks-will-it-make?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3008247/sri-lanka-bans-niqab-veils-after-easter-attacks-will-it-make?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 30 Apr 2019 05:22:16 +0000 The shadowy leader of the Islamic State group appeared for the first time in five years in a video released by the extremist group’s propaganda arm on Monday, acknowledging defeat in the group’s last stronghold in Syria but vowing a “long battle” ahead. The SITE Intelligence group said Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in the video, also discussed the Easter Day bombings in Sri Lanka that killed over 250 people and for which the group claimed responsibility. The video released by Al-Furqan on Monday shows... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3008196/islamic-state-leader-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi-says-long-battle?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3008196/islamic-state-leader-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi-says-long-battle?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Apr 2019 18:28:06 +0000 Sri Lanka’s president suspended the chief of police on Monday and appointed a new defence secretary in a shake-up of the shell-shocked country’s security services following the Easter Sunday terror attacks. Intelligence warnings from abroad alerting to possible attacks by Islamist extremists were ignored ahead of the multiple bombings of churches and upscale hotels on April 21 that killed 253 people and injured nearly 500. Chief of police Pujith Jayasundara had refused to quit to clear the way... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3008155/catholic-cardinal-calls-war-footing-against-islamists-sri?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3008155/catholic-cardinal-calls-war-footing-against-islamists-sri?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Apr 2019 10:41:35 +0000 In the aftermath of the devastation of the Easter Bombings in Sri Lanka that killed more than 250 people, there has been widespread shock that two of the nine suicide bombers were the children of a millionaire spice merchant who grew up in luxury. Several of the bombers had studied abroad and their career prospects seemed bright. This is not unusual. Psychologist Marc Sageman, writing about al-Qaeda, called terrorism a middle-class phenomenon. A 2016 Brookings Institution study showed that... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3007914/sri-lanka-attacks-why-wealthy-and-successful-become-suicide?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3007914/sri-lanka-attacks-why-wealthy-and-successful-become-suicide?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Apr 2019 09:30:09 +0000 Sri Lanka’s Catholics on Sunday celebrated mass in their homes by a televised broadcast as churches across the island nation shut over fears of militant attacks, a week after the Islamic State-claimed Easter suicide bombings killed over 250 people. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, delivered a homily before members of the clergy and the country’s leaders in a small chapel at his Colombo residence – an extraordinary measure underlining the fear still gripping the... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007988/islamic-state-claims-three-militants-who-blew-themselves-sri?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007988/islamic-state-claims-three-militants-who-blew-themselves-sri?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Apr 2019 02:58:41 +0000 Details regarding the suicide bombers involved in the attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday appear stranger by the minute. The copper factory belonging to one of them, 33-year-old Illham Ibrahim, had received favourable treatment from the state, it has now been revealed. When Sri Lanka Telecom wanted to dispose of copper cables, the tender was given to the suicide bomber’s operation, according to Ranjith Vithanage, president of the country’s Consumer Rights Protection Association. The copper... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3007913/strange-lives-sri-lankas-easter-sunday-suicide-bombers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3007913/strange-lives-sri-lankas-easter-sunday-suicide-bombers?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Apr 2019 07:30:07 +0000 Sri Lanka ’s politicians, both from the governing party and the opposition, have found themselves in a dilemma since Easter Sunday’s bloody massacre: how to balance essential security concerns with their need to keep the country’s Muslim minority onside. The bombings on Sunday, which targeted churches and high-end hotels as well as other sites across the country, claimed more than 250 lives. They have been linked to extremist fringe group National Thowheed Jamath, which authorities suspect of... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3007907/sri-lanka-rising-islamic-militancy-was-proverbial-elephant-room?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3007907/sri-lanka-rising-islamic-militancy-was-proverbial-elephant-room?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Apr 2019 05:30:07 +0000 At least 15 people, including six children, were killed when suicide bombers blew themselves up when cornered by security forces in eastern Sri Lanka, police said on Saturday. Three men set off explosives killing three other women and six children inside what was believed to an Islamist safe house near the town of Kalmunai on Friday night, police said. “Three other men, also believed to be suicide bombers, were found dead outside the house,” police said in a statement. Sri Lankan soldiers... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007933/least-15-dead-after-suicide-bombers-explode-sri-lanka-safe?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007933/least-15-dead-after-suicide-bombers-explode-sri-lanka-safe?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Apr 2019 04:04:47 +0000 In the 1990s, I travelled regularly to Sri Lanka, mostly for work. Back then, the insurgency of the Tamil Tigers was in full swing and the island was enduring terrible carnage. Bus and train stations, places of worship, commercial flights and even the central bank were attacked during this period. I visited Colombo soon after the central bank bombing in 1996. I stayed at what was at the time considered the best hotel in town – the Hilton – and was surprised to see what lax security was in place... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3007635/after-sri-lanka-bombings-security-screenings-could-be?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3007635/after-sri-lanka-bombings-security-screenings-could-be?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Apr 2019 19:00:09 +0000 The suspected leader of the militant group Sri Lankan authorities said carried out a series of Easter Sunday bombings died in the blast at the Shangri-La hotel, one of six hotels and churches targeted in the attacks that killed at least 250 people, officials said on Friday. Police said on an official Twitter account that Mohamed Zahran, the leader of local militant group National Towheed Jamaat, had been killed in one of the nine suicide bombings. Police also said they had arrested the group’s... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007882/sri-lanka-says-easter-bombings-leader-mohamed-zahran-died?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007882/sri-lanka-says-easter-bombings-leader-mohamed-zahran-died?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Apr 2019 12:19:54 +0000 Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Sky News on Thursday that the Sri Lankan government had known Sri Lankan nationals who had joined Islamic State (IS) had returned to the country – but that they could not be arrested, since joining a foreign terrorist organisation is not against the law. His comments came days after attacks on Easter Sunday that killed 253 people – revised down from more than 350. IS claimed responsibility on Tuesday, although the degree of their involvement is... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007743/sri-lanka-did-not-arrest-citizens-who-joined-islamic-state?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007743/sri-lanka-did-not-arrest-citizens-who-joined-islamic-state?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Apr 2019 02:43:29 +0000 Authorities in Sri Lanka on Thursday lowered the death toll in a spate of Easter bombings by more than 100 to 253, admitting some of the badly mutilated bodies had been erroneously double counted. The toll revision will boost the pressure on a government already under fire over its apparent failure to act on intelligence about the attacks, and follows the resignation of a top defence official. The top bureaucrat in the island nation’s defence ministry, Hemasiri Fernando, was the first... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007728/sri-lanka-blast-death-toll-lowered-about-100-some-bodies-were?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007728/sri-lanka-blast-death-toll-lowered-about-100-some-bodies-were?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Apr 2019 18:45:26 +0000 Sri Lanka’s top defence official resigned on Thursday over security failures that led to the deadly Easter bombings, as Catholic churches suspended all services fearing further attacks. A ministry official said Hemasiri Fernando, Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, had submitted a letter of resignation to President Maithripala Sirisena. The country’s government has come under increasing pressure over the revelation it failed to act on intelligence about planned attacks, which claimed nearly... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007724/sri-lanka-suicide-blasts-top-sri-lanka-defence-official?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007724/sri-lanka-suicide-blasts-top-sri-lanka-defence-official?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Apr 2019 16:03:47 +0000 Attacks against mosques, shrines and followers of Sufi sheikhs in Sri Lanka more than a decade ago pointed to early warning signs of fundamentalism taking root among a sliver of the country’s Muslims. The Easter attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 350 people in churches and hotels showed how the warnings went largely unheeded. It also exposed how a legacy of civil war, marginalisation, political disarray and security lapses cultivated fertile ground for the militants to carry out their... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007628/sri-lanka-bombings-why-warnings-signs-radicalisation-went?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007628/sri-lanka-bombings-why-warnings-signs-radicalisation-went?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Apr 2019 06:41:12 +0000 Now that Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the deadly bombings of Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka via its Amaq propaganda agency, it is time to focus on the big picture. From the outset, IS was the name that leapt out as the prime suspect from the fairly large pool of transnational terrorist organisations active around the world, yet this prompted the question of why it would pick the Indian Ocean island to unleash attacks typical of the killing fields of Afghanistan and Syria. IS... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3007429/sri-lanka-bombings-may-mean-islamic-state-after-its-middle?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3007429/sri-lanka-bombings-may-mean-islamic-state-after-its-middle?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Apr 2019 19:00:12 +0000 Four of the five Chinese missing in bombings in Sri Lanka on Sunday were feared dead, with efforts continuing to locate the fifth, Chinese ambassador to Colombo Cheng Xueyuan said on Wednesday. Cheng said that four were “suspected to be dead” and the embassy was waiting for confirmation, according to video clips posted online by The Beijing News. “The embassy has notified their families and employers to come to Colombo for final confirmation,” Cheng said. “They are still suspected deaths because... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3007517/chinese-embassy-sri-lanka-awaits-confirmation-four-deaths?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3007517/chinese-embassy-sri-lanka-awaits-confirmation-four-deaths?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Apr 2019 10:27:57 +0000 For years, Sri Lanka’s Muslim community warned authorities about a firebrand cleric. Now it seems Zahran Hashim may have played a key role in one of the worst attacks in the country’s history. A video released Tuesday by Islamic State, which earlier claimed responsibility for the Easter attacks that killed over 350 people, appears to prominently feature Hashim. He appears to be the round-faced cleric in the footage – the only one of the eight figures depicted whose face is uncovered. Dressed in... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007510/who-zahran-hashim-radical-cleric-linked-sri-lanka-bombings?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007510/who-zahran-hashim-radical-cleric-linked-sri-lanka-bombings?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Apr 2019 09:38:44 +0000 One of the suspects in the Sri Lanka suicide bombings studied in the United Kingdom and Australia before carrying out the attacks, the state minister for defence has said. “We believe that one of the suicide bombers studied in the UK and later did his postgraduate [studies] in Australia before coming back and settling in Sri Lanka,” Ruwan Wijewardene said at a media briefing on Wednesday. Wijewardene confirmed that many of the other bombers were from well-off backgrounds and had international... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007427/sri-lanka-bombings-death-toll-rises-359-over-50-suspects?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007427/sri-lanka-bombings-death-toll-rises-359-over-50-suspects?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Apr 2019 04:18:54 +0000 Hong Kong tourist Annie Wu Li-chun counts her lucky stars that she never woke up 30 minutes earlier for breakfast on Easter Sunday in Colombo. The 35-year-old yoga teacher had tried to rouse her sleeping husband Ryan Xu Xin in their room at the Shangri-La hotel in the Sri Lankan capital at around 8.45am. She then sat by the room window – and watched as bombs rocked the capital. A restaurant in the Shangri-La was the target of a suicide blast during the breakfast peak that left several dead... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3007388/sri-lanka-bombings-hong-kong-tourist-couple-recount?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3007388/sri-lanka-bombings-hong-kong-tourist-couple-recount?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Apr 2019 00:00:19 +0000 Interpol has joined the investigation into the devastating series of blasts across Sri Lanka on Sunday that killed 321 people, including at least 45 children, with attention now focused on a second extremist group known as Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen. In a special session of parliament on Tuesday, State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene said investigators were examining links between the local jihadist group National Thowheed Jamath and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen. He also noted that the Easter Sunday... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007368/sri-lanka-bombings-investigators-probe-global-terror-links?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007368/sri-lanka-bombings-investigators-probe-global-terror-links?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Apr 2019 12:24:39 +0000 The Sri Lankan government has blamed a little-known Islamist group for the suicide bombings that left more than 300 people dead in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. But the coordinated attacks bear the hallmarks of those done by hardline militant groups with international networks, like the Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda. IS has not claimed responsibility but several among the more than 30 people arrested in connection with the attack have revealed their affiliation to Dawlah Ismaiyah, the Arabic... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3007288/sri-lanka-bombings-bear-hallmarks-islamic-state-attack?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3007288/sri-lanka-bombings-bear-hallmarks-islamic-state-attack?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Apr 2019 06:13:38 +0000 China has warned its citizens not to travel to Sri Lanka after a series of explosions on Easter Sunday resulted in the deaths of 310 people, including one Chinese national. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese embassy to Sri Lanka remind Chinese nationals not to travel to Sri Lanka in the near term,” a statement posted on the embassy’s website read. “Those already here, please step up safety precautions, try to stay away from crowded areas and pay attention to safety reminders by the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3007270/china-issues-sri-lanka-travel-alert-after-deadly-easter-blasts?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3007270/china-issues-sri-lanka-travel-alert-after-deadly-easter-blasts?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Apr 2019 04:48:01 +0000 At least 290 people were killed in the Easter Sunday bombings across Sri Lanka, with at least 31 of those being foreigners. The attackers targeted prominent churches and luxury hotels – places where entire families were worshipping or holidaying together. Here are some details of the victims from Sunday’s devastating events. Sri Lanka The vast majority of the victims were Sri Lankan, many from the island nation’s Christian minority. Their names and other details of their lives were slow to... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007246/victims-sri-lanka-suicide-bombings-entire-families-around?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3007246/victims-sri-lanka-suicide-bombings-entire-families-around?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Apr 2019 03:04:37 +0000