Sri Lanka has launched a hunt for the perpetrators of the deadly Easter Sunday explosions which killed about 250 people including 40 foreigners. 

More than 140 people have been arrested so far and based on inputs the security agencies are investigating to break the network of the two Islamist groups, who are believed to have carried out the attacks. 

"Tied to international terrorism, all these acts of destruction are for the sake of achieving what they call a religious goal, but it really isn't possible under Islam," said Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sri Lankan prime minister, in an exclusive interview with CGTN.

"They are misguided people. Nevertheless, it is very very worrying. And while we may have these targets now, the targets can change later if they are allowed to roam around."

The explosions have led to ethnic tensions between communities. 

In Negombo, about 40 kilometers from the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo, Muslim refugees have been chased out of rented accommodations. 

The day the St. Sebastian church in Negombo was attacked, Christians in the area asked Muslim refugees to vacate their houses. 

Fearing backlash, religious leaders have appealed to their communities to not take the law into their own hands. 

"There's tension in the country but it did not come out into a communal clash, because everyone stepped out the cardinal, the Christian clergy, the venerable chief monks of the Buddhist sangha and the members of the sangha, the Muslim clergy and of course the Hindu priests," Wickremesinghe said. 

"They all came out and asked for peace. It certainly worked today on Sunday. For instance, I found that one of the Buddhist temples were being used for Catholic mass. And his eminence the cardinal told me that a mosque had been offered to them to hold mass. You could see the feelings." 

The security situation in the country has impacted the tourism industry in a big way. 

Within hours after the explosions, over 30 percent hotel bookings were cancelled, and the number has doubled since then.

The government is lending all support to the industry to get it back on track before the tourist season begins in August.

"We have to stabilize the security situation", the prime minister said, adding that "Many other countries which were really destined as good tourist locations such as Bali, Tunisia all have gone through this. And they recovered. It's a question mainly of security. At the moment, May has become a lean season for us. But we have to get tourism moving for the August season."

To deal with international terrorism, the emergency regulations have been imposed. 

"We will have to look at the regulations to be dropped in order to introduce new regulations against terrorist movements. Some of them have been proscribed but we are also preparing legislature to deal with the hiatus in our laws of that taking action against those who join foreign terrorist groups," Wickremesinghe told CGTN.

The government has already banned two groups, Nationa Towheed Jammat and Jamathei Millathu Ibraheem (JMI), which are believed to have carried out the attacks. 

The Sri Lankans, who enjoyed ten years of peace after a thirty-year civil war, are surprised by these attacks. They fear that the wartime measures introduced by the government will once again put their lives in jeopardy.   

(Cover: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe during an interview with CGTN, Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 28, 2019. /CGTN Photo)