Father Neville Fernando, TOR, froze. He was standing in the middle of St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka, on Easter Sunday, in the immediate aftermath of a jihadist attack that would kill over 250 people and injure 500 others in three churches and three hotels in the Colombo area.
Persecution against Christians in Southeast Asia, particularly in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, has grown in severity over two years, according to a new report from Aid to the Church in Need.
Attorney General Dappula De Livera of Sri Lanka ordered the arrests of the nation’s former defense minister and police chief Tuesday on charges of gross negligence in relation to the Islamic State attack on Christian churches and hotels on Easter Sunday.
A court in Colombo, Sri Lanka, this week ordered the continued detention of nine Iranians caught with 107 kg of heroin this year, the local news outlet Ada Derana reported.
A prominent Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka discouraged Buddhists from frequenting Muslims shops and agreed with alleged “female devotees” who called for the stoning of Muslim doctors accused of sterilizing Buddhists, local media reported Tuesday.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the first head of state to visit Sri Lanka since the devastating Easter Islamic State attacks, making an unexpected stop Sunday at St. Anthony’s Shrine in Kochchikade to honor those killed.
The Sri Lankan cabinet on Wednesday approved harsh new laws against “fake news,” specifying five-year prison terms and fines of up to one million rupees (about $5700.)
Every Muslim minister and deputy minister in Sri Lanka’s government resigned on Monday following the resignation of two governors in response to a Buddhist monk’s hunger strike calling for Muslim officials to step down.
Kenya’s request this week for a $740 million loan from the World Bank, of which American taxpayers remain the largest stakeholders, has sparked outrage as the African country continues to deny its financial woes and accept gigantic sums of money from China to fuel its role in Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BR).
The head of Sri Lanka’s State Intelligence Service (SIS) Sisira Mendis told that nation’s legislature on Wednesday that government intelligence and defense officials were aware of a jihadist plot to kill Christians on Easter Sunday, but no one did anything to prepare for it.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Wednesday pardoned Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera, a hardline Buddhist monk accused of inciting violence against Muslims. Sirisena’s office provided no reason for issuing the surprise pardon.
Members of a Marxist opposition party in Sri Lanka filed a motion of no confidence against the entire government of President Maithripala Sirisena on Tuesday condemning its inability to prevent the Easter Sunday jihadist attacks that killed over 250 people.
Authorities continued imposing curfews Wednesday night in Sri Lanka after a wave of largely Sinhalese Buddhist led vandalism on Muslim businesses and mosques prompted a nationwide law enforcement effort to protect the nation’s Muslim minority.
Sri Lankan police struggled to keep up this weekend with a series of mob attacks on mosques, the latest occurring Monday, in retaliation for a series of suicide bombings on Easter that killed over 350 people. The assailants are believed to belong to the country’s Buddhist majority.
Sri Lankan immigration authorities revealed this week that nearly 50 foreigners without valid visas are among the hundreds deported by the South Asian island nation in the wake of the Islamic State (ISIS)-linked attack that primarily attacked Christians on Easter Sunday.
Evangelical Christians from Sri Lanka’s Zion Church, which was bombed by jihadists on Easter, gathered for worship Sunday, chanting folr Jesus to “save us from the Satans who are trying to destroy our nation.”
The recent terrorist attacks at hotels and churches in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday were a stark reminder terrorists don’t necessarily have to strike on our soil to harm us.
Sri Lanka’s Home Affairs Minister Vajira Abeywardena revealed Sunday that the country had deported 200 Islamic clerics in the wake of the Easter Sunday jihadist attacks against Christians over concerns they had the potential to radicalize locals.
The archbishop of Colombo announced on Thursday that Sunday Mass will be canceled in his district this weekend due to ongoing security concerns. Catholic schools will also remain closed until further notice, while public schools in Sri Lanka will reopen on Monday with armed security.
“Violence and terrorism against people of all faiths must end and it must end now,” Trump said, as the audience applauded.
Radical imam and Sri Lanka bombing mastermind Mohamed Zahran Hashim wrote a series of Facebook posts before launching the Easter Sunday attacks that killed hundreds of people, in which he called for the murder of non-Muslims including women and children. The Facebook posts reportedly remained online as of Tuesday night despite numerous complaints from moderate Muslims.
Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, long rumored to have been killed during the collapse of his “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria, released a new video on Monday in which he praised the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka as well as jihadis in Burkina Faso and Mali. It was the first confirmed video appearance by Baghdadi since the summer of 2014.
Sri Lankan security forces continued a massive operation during the weekend, focusing on perpetrators of the Easter Sunday church bombings and seizing large caches of explosives and equipment that could have been used in further suicide attacks.
The Sri Lankan opposition newspaper Colombo Telegraph accused President Maithripala Sirisena on Sunday of having direct knowledge of an Islamist plot to kill Christians on Easter, lying about it, and firing the nation’s defense chief to cover for the head of national intelligence, a personal friend.
Sri Lankan authorities banned National Thawheed Ja’amath (NTJ), the Islamist group believed to have orchestrated the Easter Sunday jihadist attacks against Christians this month and arrested its leader a week after the bombings.
The government of Sri Lanka has banned full face coverings, including but not limited to the Islamic burqa and niqab, as an emergency measure following the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks targeting Christians and tourists.
Sri Lanka deployed thousands of security forces on Friday to protect mosques and other worshipping centers across the island nation against potential retaliatory violence in the wake of the jihadi suicide bombings against Christians on Easter Sunday.
Some good news emerged from Sri Lanka for the grimmest of reasons on Friday, as the government revised the official death toll down from 359 to 253. Officials explained the precise number of dead is difficult to ascertain because the bodies of victims were mangled so horribly by the explosions.
Police in Sri Lanka conducted a series of raids Friday on suspected jihadists, finding in one mosque in Colombo’s suburb of Slave Island a stockpile of 47 swords alongside counterfeit military uniforms, a suicide bomber jacket, and machetes.
Sri Lankan authorities this week reportedly identified two sons and a daughter-in-law of a local millionaire spice trader as some of the jihadis involved in the wave of suicide bombings that targeted Christians on Easter Sunday, killing and injuring hundreds.
