Easter blasts: Sri Lanka imposes emergency as death toll mounts to 290

Number of Indians killed in the serial blasts rises to 8; attacks carried out with the help of an international network.

A ninth explosive device, a six-foot pipe bomb, was found at Colombo International Airport on Monday. It was successfully defused.

Sri Lankan police found 87 bomb detonators at the main bus station in Colombo on Monday, a spokesman said.

Seven Lankan suicide bombers involved in Easter blasts; 24 arrested as toll rises to 290.

A local outfit identified as the National Tawheed Jamath is suspected of plotting the blasts, a top Sri Lankan minister said.

Sri Lanka enforced a state of emergency from midnight on Monday in the wake of the blasts, enhancing the counter-terrorism powers of the security forces.

The decision was made during a meeting of the National Security Council chaired by President Maithripala Sirisena.

The Indian Coast Guard has beefed up surveillance and deployed more ships and aircraft for patrolling following the series of attacks on Sunday.

This has been done to ensure that no element that could pose as a security threat sneaks into the country through sea, a senior Coast Guard official said.

In a statement, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “outraged by the terrorist attacks” on churches and hotels on Easter Sunday, which is a “sacred day” for Christians around the world.

Business Standard

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.

Narendra Modi's maiden Maldives trip signals support for Solih govt

The Saturday visit - the first by an Indian head of state since 2011 - is expected to reset strained ties with Maldives.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make his first-ever visit to the tropical island nation of Maldives for the swearing-in of its new president amid ongoing rivalry between New Delhi and Beijing for influence in the Indian Ocean.

The Saturday visit — the first by an Indian head of state since 2011 — is expected to reset strained ties with Maldives as Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, a veteran opposition politician, takes over after successfully ousting former pro-China president Abdulla Yameen.

Solih’s new government is expected to end political uncertainty in the South Asian archipelago nation that preceded a tense election this September. Former president Yameen had locked away opposition figures and judges amid international condemnation, including unusually strident comments from India.

Yameen had also taken numerous loans from China that pushed the country into debt, like other countries in the region including Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Solih’s Maldivian Democratic Party had taken an anti-China stance.

“India is in a position to gain some lost ground in Maldives,” said K Yhome, who specialises in India’s neighborhood at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation. “The fact that Prime Minister Modi has agreed to attend the swearing-in sends a message that India supports the new government. Though it remains to be seen how Solih continues his posturing” after elections.

Solih’s triumph in the Maldives contrasts with political turmoil in Sri Lanka, where the president has tried to unilaterally sack his prime minister and appoint the country’s former pro-China strongman leader Mahinda Rajapaksa in his place. That move, which appears uncertain amid a parliamentary vote and political upheaval earlier this week, was similarly condemned by nations including the US.

Modi’s trip comes amid a broader push by the US, India, Japan and Australia — which have struck a new partnership known as the Quad — to counter China’s cash infrastructure lending in the region.

Business Standard

India tops list of countries which faced internet shutdowns: Report

Out of the 65 countries assessed, 26 are said to have experienced a deterioration.

India leads the world in the number of internet shutdowns, with over 100 reported incidents in 2018 alone according to a report titled 'Freedom on the Net' by a US think tank. Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Centre, a legal services organisation, puts the number at 121 as of October 10, 2018.

An earlier report by India Spend claimed that nearly 16,315 hours of internet shutdowns over six years till 2017 cost India $3.04 billion (Rs 213.36 billion).

Aggregated data collated by SFLC shows that there have been 233 reported instances of suspension of internet services in India in the last seven years. However, 73 per cent of these shutdowns have happened only in the last year and a half.

The SLFC report further stated that internet shutdowns go against the human rights of citizens and should call for further questioning on their purpose in the interest of transparency.

There are largely three different laws under which such orders are given by the governments. First is Section 144, Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, which allows the authorities to lay down guidelines to impose “temporary measures to maintain public tranquility.”

The 'Freedom on the Net' report offers a bleak perspective on the state of internet freedom across the world.

Out of the 65 countries assessed, 26 are said to have experienced a deterioration. Almost half of all declines were related to elections.

The Indian government has been referred to as a poor custodian of privacy on the basis of several alleged breaches of the Aadhaar database.

The report also mentioned the recent spate of mob lynchings due to the spread of fake news. It states:

"Users in the state of Tamil Nadu shared a video showing a child being kidnapped by a masked motorcyclist on WhatsApp, along with an audio message warning that 200 “Hindi-speaking” child kidnappers were entering the state. The video was actually from a public-service announcement against child kidnapping in Karachi, Pakistan. Mobs killed at least two people and physically assaulted several others who were mistaken for kidnappers."

Business Standard

India worse than Bhutan, Bangladesh in healthcare, ranks 145th globally

India has improved its ranking on a global healthcare access and quality (HAQ) index from 153 in 1990 to 145 in 2016, yet ranks lower than neighbouring Bangladesh and even sub-Saharan Sudan and Equatorial Guinea.

In 2016, India scored 41.2 points on the healthcare access and quality (HAQ) index created by the Global Burden of Disease study published in the medical journal The Lancet on May 23, 2018. This 16.5-point improvement in 26 years leaves India’s score well below the global average of 54.4.

Despite improvements in healthcare access and quality, India lags way behind its BRICS peers Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa on the HAQ index, but matches China in disparity in healthcare access and quality between states.

Within India, best performers Goa and Kerala scored more than 60 points on the HAQ index in 2016, whereas worst performers Assam and Uttar Pradesh scored below 40. This gap between the highest and lowest scores increased from a 23.4 point difference in 1990 to a 30.8 point difference in 2016. (China fared the worst with a 43.5-point difference, ranging from 91.5 in Beijing to 48.0 in Tibet.)

The index is based on 32 causes of death considered preventable with effective medical care.

It assigns a 0-100 score to each of the 195 countries and territories assessed. For the first time, this year’s study analysed healthcare access and quality between regions within seven countries: Brazil, China, England, India, Japan, Mexico and the USA.

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