Apr 28 (ST) Gross bureaucratic inefficiency, scant disregard for intelligence warnings, mediocre and pathetic mishandling by the political leadership caused the deaths of 359 people, revised dramatically to 253, during last Sunday�s Easter massacre. If the injured toll was around 600, it was also lowered officially to 149 on Thursday night reflecting tragi-comedy that is being played out in the aftermath of one of the worst massacres. more..

Apr 28 (Island) All though we live in a turbulent world we must remember that life is essentially about accommodation and co habitation. Yes, it is all about living in peace with our compatriots, maintaining relationships with understanding for our mutual welfare. However, in the Sri Lankan context relationships are influenced increasingly by political ideologies directed by politicians wanting to advance their political parties and, even more, their own political ambitions. more..

Apr 28 (Island) Knowing how the premier intelligence service, now called the SIS (State Intelligence Services) had been functioning from 1980s to about 2002, I have no reason to be surprised that serious lapses and omissions by the national security network had led to carnage in the country on 21st April, 2019. Intelligence received from a foreign intelligence channel of repute has to be deemed credible. In this instance, there had been specifics as well. more..

Apr 28 (ST) It was PM Ranil Wickremesinghe who persuaded President Sirisena to impose a curfew after last Sunday�s Easter massacre, a UNF source said. The source described the sequence of events as follows; On Sunday at 9.05 am, the PM called his Secretary Saman Ekanayake informing him that he was returning to Colombo from Bentota to meet him at Temple Trees. At 9.15 am, Mr. Ekanayake called PM more..

Apr 28 (ST) The Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) is to be equipped with a Facial Recognition System (FRS) as part of the heightened security measures in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday massacres by ISIS-linked terror groups. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has informed the Defence Ministry of an offer to donate an advanced Facial Recognition System to be installed at the BIA. more..

Apr 28 (BBC) One week ago many dozens of children were killed in Sri Lanka's Easter Sunday attacks. Dressed in their finest clothes for one of the most important church services of the year, this was the first generation in decades to grow up free of violence. Their stories - and the struggle for the surviving children to comprehend the carnage - take the island down a devastatingly familiar path. When bubbly Sneha Savindri Fernando went more..

Apr 28 (DM) The sister of the British-educated Sri Lanka suicide bomber has revealed how he became radicalised abroad and ended up really angry and totally crazy � even telling off male relatives for trimming their beards. In an exclusive interview Samsul Hidaya said Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed had been educated to the highest level but became increasingly withdrawn and intense as he descended into extremism. more..

Apr 28 (EN) PM Ranil Wickremesinghe has urged parliament to speed up the enaction of law against terrorist activities following Easter Sunday bombings and reports that several persons had been fighting for Islamic State in Syria. SL's existing anti-terrorism laws were enacted in 1979 to combat domestic activities and there were provisions extending its reach to South India. The law had been modeled after more..

Apr 28 (AFP) Sri Lanka's Roman Catholic leader on Sunday condemned the Easter attacks as "an insult to humanity" as the tense, grief-stricken country marked a week since suicide bombers hit three churches and three luxury hotels. Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, held a private mass after cancelling all public services amid fears of a repeat of the bombings that killed 253 people. A heavily-guarded vigil more..

Apr 28 (AFP) Church bells tolled mournfully at Colombo�s devastated St Anthony�s Shrine on Sunday, as scores of Christians wept but defiantly prayed and lit candles for the victims of the horrific Easter bombings. The bells rang out at 8.45 am, the moment a jihadist suicide bomber detonated his device inside the 18th-century church on Easter Sunday, one of six attacks on churches and luxury hotels that left 253 dead. more..

Apr 28 (SO) Investigators will use DNA tests to determine whether another man died during the explosion at the Ibrahim residence in Dematagoda last Sunday, hours after six suicide bombs exploded in churches and luxury hotels around the country. After the explosion in Dematagoda left human remains in pieces, police are trying to ascertain if another male, in addition to the 3 officers of CCD was killed in attacks. more..

Apr 28 (AD) Two main suspects wanted in connection with the Easter Day attack have been arrested at Nawalapitya area. The suspects have been identified as Mohamed Saadik Abdul Haq and Mohamed Saahid Abdul Haq. STF and SL Army officials made the arrest on a mission based on a tip-off received by the Nawalapitiya Police that the suspects are hiding in a shoe shop belonging to a relative in Gampola area. more..

Apr 28 (AD) President Maithripala Sirisena joined the special Sunday Mass held under the patronage of the Archbishop of Colombo His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith at the Archbishop�s House, today (28) remembering the victims of the disastrous Easter Sunday attacks. Churches across Sri Lanka suspended Sunday mass as security concerns remained high a week after suicide bombers killed over 250 more..

Apr 29 (CT) The names of many of those believed to be behind the bombings appear freely in the Tamil press. The English press, however, has a deferential silence because the names are of important politicians, even ministers and governors. This silence has to end. In a democracy, the people have the right to know so as to vote properly. In that spirit I am writing down names. These are based on public allegations made by respectable people � whether they are true or not, more..

Apr 29 (CT) Shock, disbelief, anger. Sadness, empathy, shame, fear � all raging inside. It is a turmoil of emotions that is consuming us, like the fires that destroyed beautiful lives last Easter morning. We have failed as SL Muslims. Failed not because those terrorists were Muslim; if they truly were, they would never have killed, because every Muslim knows what The Almighty clearly says in the Holy Quran, that to take an innocent life is like killing all of humanity, more..

Apr 29 (CT) Former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in an interview with Ceylon Today, said the dismantling of the Intelligence Service was the fundamental cause of the current situation in the country. Q: The entire country is in a state of shock following Easter Sunday�s terror attacks. As the Defence Secretary who handled national security during the height of the war and even after, how do you see the current situation in SL? more..

Apr 29 (ST) If the country�s citizens were looking to their elected representatives to project a unified front and reassure them of their security, they were bitterly disappointed, as this week�s special Parliamentary sessions, called in the wake of the barbaric Easter Sunday terrorist attacks, saw accusations and counter-accusations from both sides. Parliament was originally due to convene only on May 7, after the 2019 Budget was passed on April 5. The Easter Sunday attacks prompted more..

Apr 29 (ST) There is a special kind of atavistic horror when terrorists attack places of worship. These strikes aim at decimating not only the life and limb of innocents but also destroying a community�s faith and spirituality, the very qualities that distinguish human beings from barbarians. As bombs ripped through churches and top end hotels on Easter Sunday and small children were killed while saying their prayers, Sri Lankans entered into their own interpretation of living hell. more..

Apr 29 (CT) Colombo Telegraph can exclusively reveal that President Maithripala Sirisena has taken measures to protect his favourite Senior DIG in charge of intelligence while making the Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and IGP Pujith Jayasundara scapegoats for the colossal security blunder that resulted in the horrific bombings and killed more than 250 people on Easter Sunday. more..

Apr 29 (Island) Sunday Apr 21 started quietly for me as most Sundays do, festive or otherwise � a day of leisure reading newspapers and relaxing. Soon after nine the phone rang but like Hemasiri Fernando said later, I did not think much of the message: a church was attacked. Then the details came pouring in, including "you remember that server at the Taprobane Restaurant who gave us so much attention � he is dead in the blast." Instantly memories were brought back when more..

Apr 29 (Island) Almost all western countries, such as, the US, the UK, France, Canada, Germany and Australia, have experienced flash terrorist attacks in the not too distant past. Terrorist attacks, therefore, unfortunately are facts of life in the 21st Century. If one thinks a terrorist attack is a reason to write off a country and for the citizens to lose hope, take a good look at the US, which saw 3,000 killed and 6,000 injured in the 9/11 attacks. The US was neither written off nor categorized as more..

Apr 29 (CT) Health Ministry said according to statistics received in the aftermath of Easter Sunday�s (21) bomb attacks, the death toll was a little over 253 as opposed to the numbers given by the Police who said that it was above 350. The Colombo JMO had performed about 100 autopsies including those on the Danish billionaire�s three children, who died in the attack. There are more bodies yet to be claimed while more..

Apr 29 (Island) Thomas Hobbes famously said that man�s life had been solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short before the state came into being. We have witnessed, during the last several decades, anarchy and the attendant destruction of life and property loosed upon some parts of the world owing to the weakening of states, where the people have no security other than their strength. Mali, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, to name but a few, are glaring examples. ISIS, which is now troubling this country, more..

Apr 29 (Island) "Conspiracy theories about the involvement of the U.S. military draw attention away from where it should be focused, which is firmly on the victims and their families," the U.S. Ambassador to SL Alaina B. Teplitz has stated. Conspiracy theories do distract, she is correct. We�ll come to that presently. Let�s focus on focus for a moment. Alaina believes that unity is the most powerful answer to terrorism. Unity is key, she is correct. It is also difficult to obtain and is most fragile, more..

Apr 29 (SO) The terror attacks on Easter Sunday in Colombo snatched the lives of over 40 foreign nationals who loved our beautiful paradise isle, Sri Lanka. The eight suicide attacks which killed over 250 dragged the country back to its dark years instantaneously, in the year it was poised to celebrate a decade of peace after ending the bloody LTTE war. Sunday�s terror attacks in star class hotels and churches was said to have been more..

Apr 29 (Island) The worldwide coverage of Sri Lanka�s Easter Sunday calamities has established most of the facts about the stunning scale and coordinated execution of the bombings, and raised some fundamental questions about the external dimensions to this tragedy, its internal agencies and the senseless way they have implicated the social and political interests of SL�s Muslim community, and above all the abject failure of the divided Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration to more..

Apr 29 (CT) US-based Sri Lankan Marathoner Hiruni Wijayarathne qualified for the forthcoming IAAF World Championship 2019 as she finished second in the D�sseldorf Marathon 2019 held in Germany yesterday. Hiruni clocked 2 hours 34 minutes and 10 seconds in the race, shattering her own Sri Lanka record set in January 2018 while also achieving the qualification standard for the forthcoming IAAF World Championship in Doha, which will be her second world championship. more..

Apr 29 (ST) The game of snakes and ladders is at play once again. National team coach Chandika Hathurusingha�s One Day record, in particular, was poor. Recalled to Colombo for a grilling, Hathurusingha seemed to have survived a down-grade and is concentrating his attention on the World Cup. His future will be determined by success or failure at the World Cup. Ex-Sri Lanka opening batsman, Avishka Gunawardena, who was more..

Apr 29 (CT) Sri Lanka�s tennis sensation, Anjalika Kurera of Ave Maria Convent, quenched her bench�s thirst for victory by clinching the Championship of the ITF U-18 Junior Circuit Tennis Tournament and sealing Sri Lanka�s place in the final with a straight sets 7/5, 6/1 win over Korea�s Yujin Kim at the SLTA courts yesterday. Yujin Kim looked to attack from the start with thundering dashes, and Anjalika Kurera did well to hold off any threat which came her way in the early stages. more..

Apr 29 (Island) Dialog Foundation, a charitable trust under the aegis of Dialog Axiata, invites all Sri Lankans to help victims of the tragic events on 21st April, that claimed the lives of 253 people and injured hundreds. Dialog pledged to double every donation up to Rs.100 Million and utilise these funds towards long term educational support for more than 500 children and psychosocial rehabilitation for over 250 families whose lives were devastatingly impacted by these tragic incidents last week. more..

Apr 29 (DN) SL�s preparations for the upcoming 2019 cricket World Cup may have been stalled due to the prevailing security situation in the country but team manager Ashantha de Mel doesn�t see that as a major setback because the two weeks of training and practices they have arranged in the UK ahead of the World Cup warm-up matches should be adequate for the players to get acclimatized and be fit for the tournament. more..

Apr 29 (FT) Central Bank has requested banks and finance companies to reduce interest rates on deposits to accelerate monetary policy transmission through the financial sector, enabling lower rates on lending products in general, and to SMEs in particular, thereby enhancing credit flow to the real economy. The move follows after the Central Bank, observing high interest rates charged on lending products and excessively high interest rates, offered on-deposit products by more..

Apr 29 (CT) SL�s total milk production has recorded a notable expansion in 2018. Accordingly, total milk production increased by 19% to 471.6 million litres in 2018, compared to 396.2 million litres in 2017. Cow milk production increased by 17.7% to 385.7 million litres, while buffalo milk production increased by 25.3% to 85.9 million litres in comparison to 2017. Meanwhile, milk production at the NLDB decreased to 14.7 million litres in 2018, from 15.0 million litres in the previous year. more..

Apr 29 (FT) US District Court, Central District of California, has granted former Defence Sec. Gotabaya Rajapaksa time till 29 May to file a response to the civil case filed against him by Roy Manojkumar Samathanam, who is seeking unspecified monetary damages for torture he claims to have suffered while in custody for aiding the Tamil Tigers. The same extended date has been granted in the separate civil complaint filed by more..

Apr 29 (EN) UNP MP Field Marshall Sarath Fonseka says it is necessary to act wisely and patiently to defeat the extremist terrorism that has built up within the country. This issue cannot be resolved within a short period of time, stated former Army Commander. He also said that the necessary steps should be taken after identifying the seed behind these terror attacks. According to Fonseka, it is necessary to work patiently for at least two years to solve this issue. more..

Apr 29 (DM) A suspected handler of the suicide bombers was arrested in Enderamulla, Wattala last night. Intelligence Officers had monitored the suspected handler following his alias and a photograph of the suspect was obtained. Intelligence Officers are ascertaining as to the depth of the involvement of the said suspect and his local and international connections. Islamic radicals usually change their birth names to more completely arabised names upon Salafist radicalization. more..

Apr 29 (CT) Top political influence has forced security forces to halt further investigations into an incident where they found suspicious explosive detectors during a search operation at a star-class hotel in Union Place, Colombo, on a request made by the management of its sister hotel at the heart of Colombo. Security forces had been accompanied by police sniffer dogs especially trained to detect explosives. more..

Apr 29 (Island) Cyclone Fani was likely to move northwest off the SL shores and reach near northern Tamil Nadu tomorrow (Tuesday) evening, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said yesterday. Indian Met Department said, yesterday, that Cyclone Fani would not hit the coast of Tamil Nadu. Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Chennai announced on Sunday that the cyclone, over 1,000 km off the coast of Tamil Nadu, might cause light to moderate showers in some parts of northern TN. more..

Apr 29 (FT) Govt yesterday decided to discontinue curfew assuring a return to normalcy following dozens of arrests including the elder brother of the suicide bombers responsible for the Easter Sunday attacks. Govt discontinued customary curfew on Sunday but maintained indefinite curfew for Sammanthurai, Kalmunai, and Chawalakade as security operations continued. A man identified as Ibrahim Mohammad Ifthan carrying two swords was arrested by police in Dematagoda. more..

Apr 29 (DM) Ibrahim Mohamed Ifran Ahmed, the elder brother of two suicide bombers, who blew themselves up at two hotels had been arrested by the STF during a raid in Dematagoda this morning (28), Police said. Sources said that the suspect was arrested in a house at the Mahawila Scheme in Dematagoda today. STF also recovered a German-manufactured air gun and two swords from the suspect�s possession. more..