Multiple Deadly Explosions Hit Sri Lanka on Catholic Easter

The archbishop’s criticism of the US and Daesh comes almost three weeks after several cities of Sri Lanka – Colombo, Negombo, and Batticaloa — were rocked by serial bomb blasts on Easter Sunday (21 April). About 253 people were killed in the explosions that severely damaged three prominent churches and an equal number of up-market hotels.

The Sri Lankan government's information department reportedly announced that they had blocked some social media platforms, following violent incidents in several areas of the country, according to Reuters.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena called on foreign states' representatives in Sri Lanka on Tuesday to lift travel restrictions that they had issued for their citizens after the Easter deadly blasts, stressing that national security had been ensured in the South Asian island country, local media reported.

NEW DELHI (Sputnik) – Social networks, including Facebook and Youtube, have again been temporarily blocked in Sri Lanka, according to the broadcaster News First.

“We live on such a beautiful planet but in an ugly world.” So, wrote my daughter’s boyfriend after getting trapped in Sri Lanka during the recent terrorist atrocities.

NEW DELHI (Sputnik) - The Catholic Church of Sri Lanka retracted its recent decision to resume Sunday services in some churches from 5 May amid a continuing high level of the terrorist threat in the country, the Ada Derana portal reported on Thursday, citing Edmund Tillakaratne, spokesman for the Colombo diocese.

On 20 April, a temporary ban on the use of popular social networks and messengers, including WhatsApp, Viber and Facebook, which was imposed in the country after the terrorist attacks was lifted by the country's president.

Days after promising to restructure country's security apparatus, Sri Lankan President has introduced guidelines to discourage propagation of radical or extremist views in the island nation in any manner.

On 21 April, the government of Sri Lanka imposed a nationwide curfew and decided to temporarily shut down all social media platforms, including Facebook, WhatsApp and Viber, "in order to prevent incorrect and wrong information being spread" in the wake of the Easter Sunday bombings.

Despite the intelligence on the probability of terror attacks and their targets, Sri Lanka’s inability to prevent them has intrigued scholars in Russia and India. They observed that there is a need to study the development and impending dangers, while also trying to tackle another front of Daesh* terrorism.

NEW DELHI (Sputnik) - Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena appointed on Monday Chandana Wickramaratne as the country's new acting police chief in light of the deadly Easter Sunday terror attacks, the Ada Derana news portal reported, citing the president's office.

NEW DELHI (Sputnik) - The Government Intelligence Service of Sri Lanka has received information suggesting that Buddhist temples could be targeted by female bombers from the National Thowheeth Jamaath extremist group, Daily Mirror reported on Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Sri Lankan police have detained a man with two swords- apparently the elder brother of the suicide attacker responsible for the bombing of the five-star Shangri-La hotel last Sunday, local media reported, citing police.

Three explosions rocked Sri Lanka’s eastern city of Kalmunai on 26 April, following a series of deadly blasts that hit the country on Easter Sunday, 21 April, which left hundreds of people dead and injured nationwide.

According to a statement issued by a media division of the Sri Lankan president, the country will put a ban on clothing covering face starting tomorrow.

The police previously stated that at least 20 suspects had been arrested in recent days in connection with the Easter bombings earlier this month that claimed the lives of more than 250 people and wounded 500 others.

The infamous Islamist group claimed responsibility for the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka, and intelligence agencies have suggested that the jihadists may model their future attacks on the bombings in Colombo and other cities.

On Saturday Daesh* claimed that three of its members clashed with Sri Lankan police for several hours before detonating their suicide vests in the east coast city of Kalmunai late on Friday, Reuters reports.

The New 1st outlet reported earlier in the day, citing a police spokesman, that Sri Lanka had arrested 20 suspects in connection with the coordinated bombings over the past 24 hours, adding that police had recovered the bodies of four suspected perpetrators of three bombings that rocked the city of Kalmunai on Friday.

Authorities in Sri Lanka have urged people to exercise their faith privately as another weekend approaches amid fears of more attacks following last Sunday's bombings. Daesh claimed responsibility for the Easter attacks and according to the country's president, around 140 people suspected of having links with the terrorist group are still at large.

The news comes after on Friday Sri Lankan security forces raided a safe house of Daesh-affiliated* militants near the eastern the city of Kalmunai and killed at least four men in an exchange of fire.