Sri Lanka marks 4 years since Easter Sunday Terror Attacks in 2019

As today (April 21) marks the fourth commemoration of the Easter Sunday Terror attacks in 2019, the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka has initiated a ‘human chain’ (‘Jana Pavura’) .

The ‘human chain’ is organized in support of the Catholic Church’s quest to seek the long overdue truth behind the brutal carnage on April 21, 2019 and justice for the victims.

On April 21, 2019, suicide bombers attacked 3 churches and 3 hotels, killing 269 people and injuring more than 300, while leaving a number of others permanently disabled.

The Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith has invited all Sri Lankans to join the campaign today (April 21).

The ‘human chain’, themed “We are watching until justice is meted out”, commenced at 8.00 a.m. this morning and it will line up from St. Sebastian’s Church in Katuwapitiya to St. Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade on the Colombo-Negombo main road.

A two-minute silence will be observed at 8.45 a.m. in memory of the victims of the brutal terror attack.

Meanwhile, a march was organized from St. Sebastian’s Church in Katuwapitiya to St. Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade last night and a special church service was also held in parallel with the march.

The country was left devastated on the 21st of April in 2019 after a group of suicide attackers of the now-outlawed local Islamic extremist organization National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ) carried out a series of blasts at St. Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade, St. Sebastian’s Church in Katuwapitiya, Zion Church in Batticaloa, Cinnamon Grand, Kingsbury and Shangri-La hotels in Colombo and a guest house in Dehiwala, leaving 269 people including foreigners dead and at least 300 people injured.

Sri Lanka declared a state of emergency immediately after the bombings and the probes launched into the incident led to the arrest of many who have had links to the suicide bombers.