A funeral for a family of four who died in the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Monday.
The family went to celebrate Easter on Sunday but came back in coffins. Pratap, his wife Anastee, and their daughters were standing outside St. Anthony’s Church because it was too crowded to enter. Little did they know that it was their last mass.
Their bereaved mother refused to leave the side of the coffins and other relatives were still in disbelief.
“It seems like we all are dead. It seems like a part of my body is cut. The whole family is dead along with the children. I cannot express the pain. We can never forget this pain,” said Vimal, a brother of the deceased.
The number of grieving families is increasing as police identify the bodies of the victims who were killed in the explosions. Meanwhile, the government has announced compensation for the families of victims and the injured.
“To the families, one million rupees. And also that for those who are injured and according to their injuries from 100 000 rupees to 300 000 rupees to be paid. And also all the churches, damage, to be completely repaired and renovated by the government expense,” said Rajitha Senaratne, a Cabinet spokesperson.
Investigations were already underway when news of fresh explosions came in on Monday.
An explosion went off on Monday in a van near St. Anthony’s Church when bomb squad officials were trying to defuse it. The police also found 87 bomb detonators at the city’s main bus station.
News of the detonators caused panic among the public. It will take a few days before life returns to normal in Sri Lanka again, but for those who lost loved ones, a sense of normalcy may never return.
Now there are questions about what the government knew and why it failed to respond.
Fred Burton, chief security officer at the American geo-politics research firm Stratfor, said it’s likely that the local radical group responsible for the attacks received help from a larger, international group.
“I know for my days as a special agent with the State Department investigating acts of terror like this, I would find it hard to believe due to the sheer size and the scope and the number of targets, as well as the sophistication, that this group, at a localized level, did not get help from outside in some capacity,” said Burton.
The death toll from a string of explosions that rocked Sri Lanka on Sunday rose to 310 while over 500 were injured, the police said Tuesday.
Police spokesperson Ruwan Gunasekara said so far 26 suspects have been arrested from across the country and search operations are ongoing to nab more suspects.
The president declared April 23 as a national day of mourning.
The government said a local radical group, the National Towheed Jamaat, is responsible for the attacks.
