COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, 17 Apr (AP): Sri Lankans protesting for days near the president\u2019s office criticized a lack of progress in finding those responsible for the deaths of more than 260 people in Islamic State-inspired bombings on Easter Sunday three years ago, piling pressure on the government already embroiled in a deep economic crisis.
\nThe protesters demanded the government uncover what they called the real conspirators behind the attacks on three churches \u2014 two Catholic and one Protestant \u2014 that included simultaneous suicide bombings during Easter celebrations on April 21, 2019. Three tourist hotels were also targeted, killing 42 foreigners from 14 countries.
\nOn Sunday, hundreds of people lit candles and displayed banners and placards during a silent protest in the capital, Colombo, calling for justice for the victims of the attacks.
\nThe demonstrations were held at Colombo\u2019s main esplanade, where thousands of people have been protesting for eight days to demand the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa over the worst debt crisis that has caused critical shortages of fuel, food and medicines in the Indian Ocean island nation.
\nProtesters including relatives of the victims accused the government of failing to deliver justice for the bombings. They displayed a huge banner that read: \u201cIt\u2019s been 3 years, we cry for justice\u201d and placards that read: \u201cWho was behind this attack?\u201d
\n\u201cMy entire family is gone. Today, I live a very lonely life. I have no words to explain my agony,\u201d said Shiran Anton, whose wife and only daughter died in the attacks.
\n\u201cI want to find out who the real culprits were behind this attack and why they did it,\u201d he said, adding he was not satisfied with the investigation.
\nOfficials have charged dozens of people who allegedly received weapons training and participated in indoctrination classes from the two local Islamic extremist groups accused of carrying out the attacks.
\nThe groups had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. Friction between the country\u2019s former president and former prime minister \u2014 who belonged to different political parties \u2014 was blamed for the failure to act on the intelligence warnings.
\nThe Catholic Church in Sri Lanka has also been critical of the investigation into the bombings. Church leaders have repeatedly blamed Rajapaksa\u2019s government for not taking action against former President Maithripala Sirisena and other top officials for failing to prevent the bombings.
\nArchbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith has said the true conspirators in the attacks could still be at large and questioned the government over allegations that some members of state intelligence knew and had met with at least one attacker.
\nThe attacks shattered the country\u2019s tourism industry \u2014 a key source of hard currency \u2014 just a year before the pandemic dealt a heavy blow to the economy. Protesters also blame the government\u2019s mismanagement of the country\u2019s debt payments, including taking loans for dubious investments. AP<\/p>\n
The country is on the brink of bankruptcy, saddled with $25 billion in foreign debt over the next five years \u2014 nearly $7 billion of which is due this year alone \u2014 and dwindling foreign reserves. Talks with the International Monetary Fund are expected later this month, and the government had turned to China and India for emergency loans to buy food and fuel.
\nMuch of the anger has been directed at Rajapaksa and his elder brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who head an influential clan that has been in power for most of the past two decades. AP<\/p>\n
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, 17 Apr (AP): Sri Lankans protesting for days near the president\u2019s office criticized a lack of progress in finding those responsible for the deaths of more than 260 people in Islamic State-inspired bombings on Easter Sunday three years ago, piling pressure on the government already embroiled in a deep economic crisis. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-188994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}