At least 290 people have been killed and 500 more injured in a series of explosions targeting churches holding Easter services and hotels in Sri Lanka.
Most of the dead are believed to have been Sri Lankans, but officials say about 30 people from other countries have lost their lives.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks but Sri Lanka’s defense minister, Ruwan Wijewardene, said the culprits had been identified and were “religious extremists”.
He said suicide bombers were responsible for the majority of yesterday’s bombings and that the wave of attacks was the work of a single group.
24 People have been reported to have been arrested so far.
The suicide bombers behind the attack at Shangdi La Hotel and Batticaloa Church have been identified as the Islamist extremist Imam Zahran Hashim and a man by the name of Abu Mohammed, according to CNN 18 News.
The government has imposed a curfew with immediate effect. It also shut down social media and messaging services.
There were six initial blasts, at three hotels and three churches, before two more explosions some time later, at a guest house and housing scheme, with two people reported to have been killed at the former.
Harsha de Silva, a government minister, said the last two blasts appeared to have been carried out by the culprits as they fled from police.
The prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, condemned the “cowardly” attacks and urged people to remain “united and strong”.
He convened Sri Lanka’s top military officials at an emergency meeting of the national security council.
The archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, called it “a very sad day” and urged the government to identify the attackers and “punish them mercilessly because only animals can behave like that”.
World leaders have condemned the attacks and expressed their sympathies to the victims.
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Ottawa monastery’s Buddha statue vandalized for the third time ,3 days ago with bible verses First Commandment from the Bible: Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Is this may be root cause of the Attack in Srilankan Churches ordered by Chinese Buddhists.#false flag
Side effect of Neighboring political and election Situation who has no clean hands. LTTE was used as divide Hindu and Buddhist earlier.
LTTE terrorism is trained and developed by the Neighbor and continues as like this to divide and rule Hindus, Christians and Muslims. Actually this false flag seems to be planned it in south and moved to Srilanka.
Suddenly how something like NTJ and Zahran Hashim newly comes into picture despite strong monitoring.