Sri Lanka Easter Bombings

Sri Lanka ex-prez Sirisena settles compensation for Easter bombings victims

Sri Lanka's former president Maithripala Sirisena has settled in full the SLR 100 million compensation for the victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 270 people, including 11 Indians, during his tenure. Sirisena, 72, was ordered by the Supreme Court to pay SLRs 100 million as compensation to victims for his negligence in preventing the country's one of the worst terror strikes despite having credible information of an imminent attack. His lawyers said the full payment of rupees 100 million was completed on August 16. Nine suicide bombers belonging to local Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jamaat (NTJ) linked to ISIS carried out a series of devastating blasts that tore through three Catholic churches and as many luxury hotels on April 21, 2019, killing nearly 270 people, including 11 Indians, and injuring over 500. Sirisena was also the minister of defence at that time. The attack stirred a political storm as the then President Sirisena and Prime Minister

Sri Lanka implements free tourist visas for India, six other countries

Aimed at boosting the tourism sector, Indian tourists the largest inbound group to Sri Lanka, would receive free tourist visas with immediate effect, the Department of Immigration and Emigration has announced here. The facility follows a Cabinet decision from October to issue free tourist visas to travellers from India, China, Russia, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, and Thailand amidst efforts to rebuild the debt-trapped island nation's tourism sector that had slumped since the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings. The pilot project to offer free visas for the first 30 days would be in force till March 31, 2024, the announcement said. The travellers would be given dual entry status on arrival and the visa validity would be limited to 30 days' stay in the island nation. India is traditionally Sri Lanka's top inbound tourism market. In October 2023, arrival figures for India topped with over 28,000 arrivals or 26 per cent with Russian tourists trailing at over 10,000 arrivals as the second lar

SL to investigate claims of intelligence complicity in 2019 Easter bombing

Sri Lanka's government will appoint a parliamentary committee to investigate allegations made in a British television report that Sri Lankan intelligence had complicity in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 269 people. Labour Minister Manusha Nanayakkara told Parliament on Tuesday that details on the investigation will be announced soon. A man interviewed in the Channel 4 videos released Tuesday said he arranged a meeting between a local Islamic State-inspired group and a top state intelligence official to hatch a plot to create insecurity in Sri Lanka and enable Gotabaya Rajapaksa to win the presidential election later that year. Azad Maulana was a spokesman for a breakaway group of the Tamil Tiger rebels that later became a pro-state militia and helped the government defeat the rebels and win Sri Lanka's long civil war in 2009. Rajapaksa was a top defence official during the war, and his older brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, had been defeated in the 2015 elections after 10 .

Sri Lanka's ex-Attorney General summoned over Easter Sunday attack

Sri Lanka's former Attorney General (AG), who claimed that there was a 'grand conspiracy' behind the 2019 Easter Sunday attack, has been summoned

Sri Lanka's church demands action against ex leaders for Easter attack

Sri Lanka's Catholic church demanded that action be taken against former president Maithripala Sirisena and ex-prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for their failures to prevent the Easter bombings

Sri Lanka's ex-resident appears before panel probing Easter Sunday attacks

The Commission issued notices to Sirisena on September 22 to testify before it on October 5

Lanka extends free tourist visa facility until April 30 to revive tourism

In April, Sri Lanka suspended its plans to grant visa-on-arrival to citizens of 39 countries after the devastating bombings that killed 258 people

Sri Lanka's strongmen brothers seek comeback as presidential vote underway

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, a a former defence secretary, is running as the candidate for the nationalist Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party. He has made national security his key campaign platform.

We cannot afford another war, says Sri Lanka's top army official

In an interview, he tells Aditi Phadnis about the new challenges Sri Lanka faces after the April attacks by Islamic radicals

Sri Lankan tourism industry begins to recover after Easter attacks

The island nation's tourism sector, one of the country's top revenue streams, suffered a massive blow following April 21 Islamist militant bombings of churches and luxury hotels

Drug syndicates orchestrated Sri Lanka Easter bombings, claims President

'Drug barons carried out this attack to discredit me and discourage my anti-narcotics drive. I will not be deterred,' he said

Five suspects linked to Sri Lanka's easter attacks repatriated from UAE

Five suspects linked to the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka have been repatriated from the UAE, police said Friday. The suspects also include Mohamed Milhan, a prominent member of the banned terror outfit National Thawheed Jamath (NTJ) that was responsible for the attacks. Milhan was also listed as a terror suspect in the Intelligence warnings issued before the Easter Sunday terror attacks, the Times Online reported. A team comprising officials of the Criminal Investigations Department took the suspects in its custody in Dubai and brought them back for further questioning. "Officers of the Criminal Investigations Department brought the suspects back to Sri Lanka this morning," police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said in a statement. A series of coordinated blasts on April 21 targeted three churches and high-end hotels, killing 258 people and injuring over 500 others. Earlier, the Sri Lankan government banned the NTJ after the deadly attacks and arrested over 100 people in conne