As celebrations for Easter Sunday were commencing around the world, news began trickling in that there was a devastating attack in Sri Lanka that had killed, maimed and also instilled a climate of fear in the country.
Initially, a series of eight simultaneous suicide bombings blasted through the country as churches, hotels and other sites in populated areas were targeted. In Colombo alone, six attacks were conducted on St. Anthony’s Shrine, one of the largest Roman Catholic churches, as well as a string of luxury hotels. Over 30 kilometres away, St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo was blasted with the deadliest suicide attack with an estimated death toll of 104 people and photos showing the ceiling had been blown off. Finally, a suicide bomber killed at least 28 people at the Zion Church in Batticaloa with many watching in horror. On Sunday night, authorities defused an improvised bomb found near Bandaranaike International Airport and disposed of it further adding to the panic that there were other bombs yet to be denotated. On Monday, another explosion occurred near Colombo as the explosives the Police were attempting to defuse blew up sending further panic amongst passers-by. Police continue to hunt down suspects of these terrorist attacks and officials have also warned that further militants and explosives could still be out there following the attacks.
Now, days after the horrific attacks that plagued the country, the death toll has reached at least 310 people with nearly 500 people injured. Innocent people that had begun their celebrations and had been enjoying their holiday were brutally murdered, maimed and scarred by the memory of this dark day. The sheer scale of this attack in Sri Lanka is immense, exceeding the Bali bombings and the Mumbai attacks and has been labelled one of the deadliest attacks in Asian in recent memory.
Sri Lankan authorities have now stated that a local Islamist group called National Thowheed Jamath was behind the attacks and police have arrested 40 people connected to the suicide bombings. They are also investigating the potential international aid the group had in conducting their devastating attacks as there was a high degree of sophistication, with some anti-terrorist experts saying this bore the mark of militant groups.
As the heat turns to the government, various reports have emerged that they were given intelligence by domestic and foreign governments regarding threats made in mid-April. However, especially given the political spat that emerged late last year, intergovernmental information sharing ensured that this intelligence did not reach the relevant people including Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Additionally, Harsha De Silva, cabinet minister, was clear when he stated that the US and Indian intelligence agencies warned Sri Lankan officials before the attacks occurred and urged them to be vigilant. A government spokesperson and former senior police official has also apologised for the failure to act on such intelligence and has stated in a news conference that security services were aware of the group for at least two years.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the Sri Lankan attacks via its news platform, Amaq, but there is no evidence of any direct involvement of the group. It is more likely that this claim is false in order to bring ISIS back in the orb that they used to be in. This is not unheard of as the group has previously falsified their claims in the past of involvement. However, officials have claimed that they do not think the bombings could have occurred without some form of international aid and have claimed that ‘preliminary investigations’ indicated the bombings were in retaliation for the Christchurch massacre.
This attack came to a country historically marred by violence during its 26-year civil war between the minority Hindu Tamil groups and the majority Sinhalese Buddhists. The civil war led to the deaths of an estimated 70,000 people during the conflict. However, as of 2009, the prolonged and bloody war ended as peace was restored and the country began building itself up. It was unspeakable and thinkable that events such as these would occur to a country that had maintained a strong degree of stability and peace in the ten years proceeding the end of the violence.
The tragic events of Sri Lanka have reminded the world of the constant threat that terrorism does face. It has been nearly twenty years since the new age of terrorism emerged with the events of 9/11 appearing to be the start of world-wide vigilance of this new form of transnational terrorism. Globalisation birthed this new form of terrorism just as it also raised the international joint efforts by various countries to cull these threats. Countries and agencies are working together to spread intelligence to prevent such attacks and are generally successful in sharing the information that they acquire.
There has been an improvement in the awareness of the threat globally, agencies have developed capacities to respond to terrorism and there is a generally enhancement when engaging with partner countries and international actors. However, the fear of terrorism remains. This fear is often conflated with the fear of immigration, especially from Muslim-majority countries, and has succeeded in driving a wave of populist nationalism across the world. This wave led to the election of leaders such as Donald Trump, Britain’s withdrawal from the EU and the general unease that has emerged within the world. The world is fearful despite the downward trend terrorism has taken.
Countries have strong incentives to continue to be vigilant and develop strategies for counter-terrorism. Generally speaking, most countries have been successful in doing so as seen by the major decline in terrorist attacks and fatalities since 2014. However, the events in Sri Lanka remind the world that even though the threat has declined, countries still have to develop strong strategies that endure despite politics to prevent such attacks. Sri Lanka has reminded the world that intelligence agencies cannot grow complicit with this downward trend and there does exist groups that want to keep their momentum alive. Sri Lanka was a tragedy that could have been prevented but the world should look to it as a lesson that vigilance is still needed as the world is still not settled.
We will continue to stand with the people of Sri Lanka as they mourn and begin to comprehend the series of events that led to horrific acts of senseless violence. We also urge Sri Lankans to stand in solidarity and peace with one another as they turn to their government and their intelligence agencies and ask them to do better. Sri Lanka will rebuild, as it has always done in the past. However, Sri Lanka serves as a reminder of the importance of intelligence agencies preventing such disasters as the threat of terrorism still remains.
