Sri Lanka imposes emergency law after attack

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Sri Lankans woke to an emergency law on Tuesday as authorities searched for those behind the suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels that killed at least 310 people at the weekend.

The local National Thowheeth Jama'ath group claimed responsibility for Easter Sunday's attacks on three churches and four luxury hotels that also wounded about 500 people.

On Tuesday, the country is observing a day to mourn the "senseless loss of innocent lives," Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Twitter. "It is imperative that we remain unified as Sri Lankans in the face of this unspeakable tragedy," he added.

The South Asian country has about 22 million people, including significant numbers of Hindus, Muslims and Christians.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said the number of people arrested since Sunday had risen from 24 to 40. They are mainly Sri Lankans, although Gunasekera said police were investigating whether foreigners were involved in the attacks carried out by seven suicide bombers.

The president's office declared that emergency law would come into effect from midnight, giving police extensive powers to detain and interrogate suspects without court orders. An overnight curfew was also put into effect.

The declaration came after nerves were frayed even further in the seaside capital Colombo when explosives went off on Monday near one of the churches hit in Sunday's attacks while bomb squad officers were working to defuse a device.

The attacks brought a shattering end to a relative calm that had existed in the Indian Ocean island since a bitter civil war fought by Tamil separatists ended 10 years ago and raised fears of a return to sectarian violence.

It also underlined concerns over fractures in the Sri Lankan government, with questions raised over whether an intelligence tip-off was shared at the appropriate levels.

Questions over why the intelligence warning was not acted upon could feed into a feud between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Maithripala Sirisena.

Most of the dead and wounded were Sri Lankans, although government officials said 32 foreigners were killed. That included British, U.S., Australian, Turkish, Indian, Chinese, Danish, Dutch and Portuguese nationals.

(Cover: Security personnel stand guard outside St. Anthony Shrine, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, April 23, 2019. /Reuters Photo)

Source(s): Reuters