2019 Easter attack: Sri Lanka's Supreme Court appoints 3 member bench to hear trial

On, Wednesday, a three-member bench was appointed by the Sri Lankan Supreme Court to hear the matter filed against suspects for carrying out a suicide attack during Easter in 2019. The fatal attack had taken the lives of more than 270 people, including 11 Indians, according to a report by PTI. The report stated that as many as 23,270 charges were filed by the Lankan police against 35 people in connection with the case. These charges were filed last month under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.  The three-judge bench includes justice Amal Ranaraja and Navaratne Marasinghe, which will be headed by Colombo High Court Judge Damith Thotawatte, reported PTI.  It should be mentioned here that the bench was reportedly appointed after a request for the same was made by Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam to Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya last month. 

The series of blasts killed more than 270 and injured over 500

The bombing rocked the island nation in 2019 when it was about to mark a decade since ending the long-fought Tamil separatist war in May 2009. The series of blasts, carried out by a local Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jamaat (NTJ) linked to ISIS, had ravaged three churches and many luxury hotels in the Buddhist-majority nation killing over 270 people and leaving more than 500 injured. The attack had caused a political storm in the country as the then government headed by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had become the cynosure of criticism for failing to stop such attacks despite having prior intelligence about the strikes, reported PTI.

Catholic Church demands action against the then Sri Lankan government

Showing dissatisfaction over the ongoing investigations, the Catholic Church had also criticised the government. It also alleged that the government is trying to cover up the matter. It also called for actions against Sirisena and Wickremesinghe as they were found guilty of preventing the attack by a commission of inquiry. The then Prime Minister Wickremesinghe was criticised for not being strict against rising Islamic militancy in Sri Lanka, however, he had outrightly denied it. Ahead of the Presidential election in 2019, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had promised to bring culprits to book and hundreds of suspects have been arrested by the Lankan police as of now, reported PTI. 

Image Credits: AP/PTI/Representative