{"id":63655,"date":"2019-04-21T19:12:24","date_gmt":"2019-04-21T23:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=63655"},"modified":"2019-04-21T19:15:50","modified_gmt":"2019-04-21T23:15:50","slug":"26-killed-in-bomb-explosion-during-easter-service-at-batticaloas-protestant-christian-zion-church-pr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=63655","title":{"rendered":"26 Killed in Bomb Explosion at Batticaloa’s Protestant Christian Zion Church During Easter Service : 69 of Injuured Admitted to Hospital, 6 Serious in ICU."},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over 200 people were killed and nearly 500 injured in a series of blasts that shook Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. Churches and luxury hotels were targeted in the deadliest incidents since the civil war ended a decade ago.<\/p>\n

As many as eight blasts occurred in and around the capital Colombo and in the eastern city of Batticaloa on Sunday morning, as large groups gathered at churches for Easter services.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the blasts appear to have been suicide bombings,\u201d State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene told a press conference.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hours after the coordinated attacks, police arrested several suspects from a building in the Colombo suburb of Dematagoda. Even as the police operation was underway, an explosion took place, killing three policemen. More arrests were likely, official sources said.<\/p>\n

Curfew imposed<\/strong><\/p>\n

Following the developments, authorities blocked access to social media including Facebook, Whatsapp and Viber to \u201cprevent\u201d misinformation. A curfew was declared till Monday morning.<\/p>\n

No group has claimed responsibility for the blasts. Investigating authorities in Sri Lanka are yet to disclose the names of the suspects or the alleged perpetrators.<\/p>\n

Bomb blasts kill more than 200 in Sri Lankan churches, hotels on Easter Sunday<\/p>\n

President Maithripala Sirisena has appealed for calm. \u201cI have been shocked … The security forces haven been asked to take all action necessary,\u201d Mr. Sirisena said.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe termed the blasts as \u201ccowardly attacks\u201d and said his government was working to \u201ccontain the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least eight foreign nationals were confirmed dead by Sunday evening, while 27 others who were found dead, were \u201cbelieved to be foreigners\u201d, a senior official of the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry told The Hindu. Their nationalities are yet to be made known by the Ministry.<\/p>\n

Fr. Kanapathipillai Deivendiran was to deliver the Easter Day message at the Zion Church in Batticaloa. \u201cI went a little after 9 a.m. I was a few minutes late or you will not be speaking to me now,\u201d he told The Hindu.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know that there had been a blast a few minutes before that, I just walked into the premises. As I entered, I was shaken by the sight \u2014 walls had collapsed completely, there were bodies all over the floor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to director of the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital Kalaranjani Ganesalingam, 26 people were dead while 69 were admitted with injuries. \u201cSix are still in the ICU. Everybody here is in a state of fear,\u201d she said.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The scale and savagery of the attacks that clearly targeted Christians have left Sri Lankans devastated. and confused. Christians are a minority in the island nation, making up less than 10% of the country\u2019s 20-million population. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are shocked\u2026we thought Sri Lanka had put violence behind it, and is moving forward towards some kind of development and reconciliation… where people\u2019s biggest concern had become the cost of living. But we\u2019re back to existential questions again, facing existential threats,\u201d said Radhika Coomaraswamy, former UN Under-Secretary-General. <\/p>\n

The attacks, she said, showed \u201cthe intractable\u201d nature of Sri Lanka\u2019s ethnic conflict and that enough had not been done for reconciliation or long-term prospects of peace.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Meera Srinivasan Over 200 people were killed and nearly 500 injured in a series of blasts that shook Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. Churches and luxury hotels were targeted in the deadliest incidents since the civil war ended a decade ago. As many as eight blasts occurred in and around the capital Colombo and …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘26 Killed in Bomb Explosion at Batticaloa’s Protestant Christian Zion Church During Easter Service : 69 of Injuured Admitted to Hospital, 6 Serious in ICU.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63655"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63655"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63659,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63655\/revisions\/63659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}