Sri Lanka seeks global assistance, stability after Easter blasts kill 215

At least 215 people died in coordinated blasts on Easter Sunday at churches and luxury hotels, some of which involved suicide bombers.

Business Standard : Sri Lanka sought to restore stability following one of Asia’s deadliest terrorist attacks in years, detaining 13 suspects and asking the world for help in investigating possible involvement by international terrorist groups.

More than 200 people died in coordinated blasts on Easter Sunday at churches and luxury hotels, some of which involved suicide bombers. Authorities haven’t revealed information on who may be responsible for the strikes, which targeted foreign tourists and Christians -- marking a shift from the violence that fueled a three-decade civil war on the Indian Ocean island.

Sri Lanka needs assistance from security officials abroad to “check foreign links of these groups,” Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in an address to the nation late Sunday, without providing more details. “We have to look deeper into this, but the first task is to make sure that the country is not destabilized.”

Wickremesinghe suggested authorities had received warnings but “not enough attention had been paid.” One of his cabinet ministers, Harin Fernando, tweeted an internal police memo dated April 11 warning a group called National Thowheeth Jama’ath planned to bomb Catholic churches and the Indian High Commission.

A sense of unease pervaded the nation on Sunday following a period of relative calm in the decade since the end of a brutal conflict between the predominately Buddhist Sinhalese majority and mostly Hindu Tamil minority. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which also injured at least 450 people.

U.S. President Donald Trump and other world leaders condemned the attack and offered support. Sri Lanka confirmed that 11 foreigners who died in the attacks had been identified -- including citizens of India, Portugal, Turkey, the U.K. and U.S. -- and said 25 unidentified bodies believed to be foreigners were in a Colombo morgue. Most were targeted at the Shangri-La, Kingsbury and Cinnamon Grand hotels in the capital.

Several blasts occurred hours after the first explosions on Sunday, and experts detonated a pipe bomb found on a road near Colombo’s airport. Authorities imposed a nationwide curfew and blocked platforms like Facebook and Whatsapp.

The Colombo Stock Exchange put its Monday opening on hold and schools will remain closed until Wednesday. SriLankan Airlines Ltd. advised travelers to arrive four hours before their flights to undergo additional security checks.

The attacks will test a government that’s reeling from a political crisis last year that has weighed on the economy and led to downgrades in Sri Lanka’s credit rating.