2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings
This article needs to be updated. (April 2019) |
This article does not have any sources. (September 2019) |
There were a series of suicide bombings targeting Christians and tourists in Sri Lanka, on Easter Sunday 2019 (21 April). Three churches and three luxury hotels in the Colombo area were targeted. Eight bombers killed 269 people and themselves. At least 500 people were wounded. There were also smaller bombings in other locations. One of the churches was Protestant; the other two were Catholic.
The bombings happened at nearly the same time. At least two of the bombings appeared to have been suicide attacks.
The ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks, along with a religious extremist group called National Thowheeth Jama'ath whose members, including its president, Zahran Hashim carried out the attack. There were some arrests in connection with the bombings.
There are many ethnic and religious groups in Sri Lanka. There has been a lot of violence between different groups. Most people in Sri Lanka are Buddhist. About ten percent are Muslims, and about 7.5 per cent are Christian (about 80% of them are Catholics; the remaining 20% are evenly split between Anglicans and other Protestants).
Most victims are from Sri Lanka. Between 20 and 30 foreigners were killed.
According to the government reports, all of the suicide bombers in the attacks were Sri Lankan citizens. The government said, they were associated with National Thowheeth Jamaath , a local militant Islamist group previously known for attacks against Buddhists.