By Recep Sakar
(AA): The death toll from Sunday’s multiple terror attacks in Sri Lanka has risen to 359, a police official said. More than 500 have been injured. Large number of Muslims in Sri Lanka have been attacked because of the bombings, The Muslim News can reveal.
At least 45 children were among people killed in coordinated suicide bomb attacks in Sri Lanka, the United Nations said on Tuesday. “The total now is 45 children who died,” UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac told reporters in Geneva. Those 40 children who lost their lives in the two cities were Sri Lankan nationals, while UNICEF has confirmed that another five children of foreign nationality were also killed.
Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said 18 more people were held in an operation carried out following the attacks, raising the total number of suspects under arrest to 58.
Gunasekara did not provide any further details regarding the nationalities of the suspects.
Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attacks, local media reported.
Attacks on Muslims began on April 23 in various part of Sri Lanka, especially in mixed areas. Many Muslims are leaving these areas and moving to Muslim majority areas for protection.
There have been attacks in Negombo, according to information received by The Muslim News.
“They have attacked Muslim houses, shops and individual Muslims,” the source said.
A shop in Negombo had a sign on its windows, “Remove your burqa, and enter.”
A shop belonging to a Muslim had its shop windows broken by pelting stones.
Stopped at a little shop on the way to the burial ground in Katuwapitiya. Hugely racist discourse underway about “killing Muslims” to prevent their MPs from ever going to Parliament again. Wearing shalwar today, and I felt immediately on edge even though I face no threat. #lka
The Police, Tri-Forces and Security Forces would be restructured within a week and expected to change the heads of all security forces within the next 24 hours, President Maithripala Sirisena said Tuesday.
Ruwan Wijewardene, the state minister for defence, at a media briefing on Wednesday afternoon.
“This group of suicide bombers, most of them are well-educated and come from middle or upper-middle class, so they are financially quite independent and their families are quite stable financially, that is a worrying factor in this. Some of them have I think studied in various other countries, they hold degrees, LLMs [law degrees], they’re quite well-educated people.”
On Easter Sunday, a total of eight explosions targeted eight different locations in and outside Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka.
The bombings hit churches in Kochchikade, Negombo and Batticaloa cities, as well as Kingsbury, Cinnamon Grand, and Shangri La hotels in Colombo.
The bombings targeted eight different locations — including churches where Christians were marking Easter Sunday — and 5-star hotels in commercial capital Colombo.
In the morning, churches in Kochchikade, Negombo and Batticaloa cities, as well as Kingsbury, Cinnamon Grand and Shangri La hotels in Colombo were targeted.
Sri Lanka has declared April 23 a national day of mourning.
Additional report by The Muslim News
[Photo: Relatives of the victims of multiple terror attacks cry during a funeral ceremony in Negomboo, Sri Lanka ,Tuesday, April 23 , 2019. Photographer: Chamila Karunarathne/AA]
