Sri Lanka Imposes Curfew After Easter Sunday Bombings Kill 138

http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/homerun/bloomberg_politics_602/2fd01a36edb5241103d27c6c2cddea33" alt="Multiple Blasts in Sri Lanka's Capital Colombo, Police Say" />

(Bloomberg) -- Multiple explosions rocked Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday as attacks on churches and hotels left at least 138 dead in the worst violence since a civil war ended a decade ago.

The government imposed an island-wide curfew as security forces try to maintain law and order and investigate the attacks. Those responsible for the blasts have been identified and will be taken into custody, Sri Lanka’s information minister Ruwan Wijewardene said, without providing details. Access to social media platforms including Facebook and Whatsapp has been restricted.

No one has claimed responsibility for the six coordinated explosions that took place at 8:45 a.m. local time mainly in the capital Colombo, and separate blasts later in the day. At least 400 people were injured. Foreigners were among those reported dead after explosions at luxury hotels such as the Shangri-La, Kingsbury and Cinnamon Grand.

The attacks mark a return of violence to the country of 21 million people that’s still in rehabilitation following a brutal 26-year civil war that ended in 2009 with at least 100,000 killed. Ethnic and religious divisions have plagued the island nation for decades, and there was a bitter political standoff late last year between the president and the prime minister.

The blasts at churches took place during Easter Sunday mass, in a country where large-scale attacks on Catholics and Christians have been rare. All Easter masses scheduled for this evening have been canceled, the Catholic archdiocese in Colombo said, while schools that were scheduled to reopen for the new term on Monday will remain closed until Wednesday, the education ministry announced.

Catholics, split between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority, make up 6.5 percent of Sri Lanka’s population, according to the nation’s 2012 census. More than 70 percent of Sri Lankans are Buddhist, 12 percent are Hindu and 10 percent are Muslim, the census shows.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said his government is taking immediate steps to contain the situation. In a televised appearance, he warned of an impact to the economy and investment flows.

"You will find a downward trend in the economy," he said. "Tourism will get affected. There may be fund outflows."

An emergency security council meeting had been called to review the attacks that seem to be coordinated, Harsha de Silva, minister of economic reform and public distribution, said by phone. "Rescue operations underway," de Silva said on Twitter. "Many casualties including foreigners. Horrible scenes."

The bombings in Sri Lanka -- which will remind many of the brutal civil war era -- come after a sustained period of political uncertainty following the president’s decision to fire his prime minister, said Manoj Joshi, a distinguished fellow with the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation think-tank.

"Sri Lanka is just about recovering from a civil war and so obviously this is not a good sign," Joshi said.

The attacks will also be a blow to the tourism industry and affect the stability of the rupee, said Adrian Perera, chief operating officer at Equicapital Investments in Colombo.

“If the security situation is not stable, foreign direct investment will also take a hit, especially to the real estate industry," Perera said. "The government budget will be derailed. Foreigners will dump stocks and bonds.”

Sri Lanka’s gross domestic product growth in the quarter to December was the slowest in 19 quarters, while full-year expansion cooled for a third straight year in 2018.

The rupee has risen about 4.75 percent so far this year, recovering on foreign flows to bonds and remittances during the just concluded local New Year festival, after dropping to consecutive record lows last year amid the political crisis.

news.yahoo.com/multiple-explosions-sri-lanka-apos-043827328.html

Views: 84

Comment

You need to be a member of 12160 Social Network to add comments!

Join 12160 Social Network

Comment by Parrhesia on April 21, 2019 at 2:36pm

You won't believe who they claim is the "mastermind" <sarcasm>

"Destroying the New World Order"

TOP CONTENT THIS WEEK

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE SITE!

mobile page

12160.info/m

12160 Administrators

 

Latest Activity

Burbia commented on Doc Vega's blog post Is Contact With Extraterrestrials Plausible?
"There's the story of John Dee making a deal with entities leading up to splitting the atom and…"
9 hours ago
Doc Vega posted a blog post

Escape from the Clown Show

I said stop and you say goOver the proverbial cliff don’t you know?People can’t seem to escape from…See More
10 hours ago
tjdavis posted videos
yesterday
Doc Vega posted blog posts
yesterday
cheeki kea commented on cheeki kea's photo
yesterday
cheeki kea posted a photo
yesterday
cheeki kea commented on tjdavis's photo
Thumbnail

Muskrat Love

"Good vid. find Burbia. Very interesting indeed. "
yesterday
cheeki kea posted a blog post

General Dynamics Was Contracted By Pentagon To Run An Anti-Vaccine Psyop? Deep insight from a reader comment...

 A top notch comment from a Substack post. I nominate this individual as as commenter of the year…See More
yesterday
Burbia commented on tjdavis's photo
yesterday
tjdavis posted photos
Wednesday
Sandy posted a video

Mel Gibson's message to Newsom: 'Spend less on hair gel!'

Actor Mel Gibson joins ‘The Ingraham Angle’ to call out California leaders over their response to the deadly wildfires scorching Los Angeles County. #foxnews...
Tuesday
Burbia commented on KLC's group MUSICWARS
Tuesday
Burbia posted a blog post
Tuesday
cheeki kea commented on tjdavis's photo
Monday
Burbia posted a video

This Plane Unlocked the Pandora Box, and This Can't be good...

This is all I could find on this crazy "Alien" situation and the famous missing airplane case - but is it connected and what does it mean?
Monday
tjdavis commented on tjdavis's blog post The Resnick Family - CA Thread
Monday
tjdavis posted a blog post
Monday
tjdavis posted videos
Monday
tjdavis posted a photo
Monday
Sandy commented on tjdavis's video
Thumbnail

Future Shock Documentary (1972)

"Strange to see everyone in the airport not staring at cell phones, actually talking to each other.…"
Monday

© 2025   Created by truth.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

content and site copyright 12160.info 2007-2019 - all rights reserved. unless otherwise noted