Some 12,500 armed police backed by the army were deployed Sunday, April 4 near nearly 2,000 Sri Lankan churches, two years after the suicide bombings that struck three churches and three luxury hotels in the country on Sunday. Easter. At least 290 people were killed in these attacks and some 500 injured.
“We also got help from the armed forces to patrol and strengthen police services across the country.”police spokesman Deputy Inspector General Ajith Rohana said. Police checked the identity and contents of the faithful’s bags on Sunday before allowing them to attend mass at San Sebastian Church in the north of the capital Colombo, where 115 people were killed in 2019 , during the Easter attacks.
200 arrests
More than 200 people in connection with the attacks, attributed to a local jihadist organization, have been arrested, but no one has yet been prosecuted. The Roman Catholic Church is putting pressure on the government so that those responsible for these attacks, as well as those who failed to prevent them, are prosecuted.
On Sunday, posters calling for justice were plastered outside the Church of Saint Sebastian, which was crowded with worshipers. The head of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith recently gave the government until April 21 for the investigation to advance or call for protests across the country.