After the attacks in Sri Lanka, the authorities have downsized the number of people killed by around 100. They now start from about 250 dead. Meanwhile, hundreds of Muslims are on the run.
After completing the autopsies, the authorities in Sri Lanka have significantly corrected the number of people killed: about one hundred less people have been killed. So far, the assumption was 359 dead. „It could be 250 or 260,“ said the Director-General of Health Services.
The false assumption came about because, according to the Ministry of Health, several severely mutilated bodies were counted twice after the explosions on Easter Sunday. In addition, the condition of the corpses makes it difficult to name an exact number.
Hundreds of Muslims on the run
The attacks on churches and hotels were perpetrated by suicide bombers. The government blames Islamists. For fear of revenge and intimidation, hundreds of Muslims sought protection in mosques and a police station. In Negombo, in the west of the country, many Muslims had to evict their homes because the owners feared retaliation on their property, said Ruki Fernando of the human rights group Inform.
Some Muslims also fled their own accord after strangers invaded their homes in the city and beat them. In a mosque in the city therefore probably looked for up to 700 Muslims refuge. Around 120 others found protection in a police station. Several hundred more Muslims were staying in a mosque in Pasyala, about 25 kilometers away.
Tense relationships
The displaced Muslims are reportedly members of the Ahmadi minority. They are refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Iran, where Hardline Islamists do not consider them real Muslims because of their religious beliefs. „Today, these refugees have become refugees in Sri Lanka,“ said Fernando.
Relations between the Ahmadis and Sri Lankan people have been tense for some time. In Negombo, for example, the refugees were accused of driving up their rents. Human rights groups accuse the government of doing too little to protect refugees.
Panic after controlled demolition
The fear of new acts of terror continues to be great, also because the government acknowledged that suspects are still on the run. After a detonation controlled by specialists, another panic arose at Colombo. According to authorities, nobody was harmed.
One reason for the preventive measures is that not all suspects have yet been caught. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe warned that the fugitives could carry explosives. The police publicly asked for information about three women and three men. The form in which they are connected with the attacks remained unclear.
The police took a businessman into custody. The man was the father of two suicide bombers, it was said; there is a suspicion that he helped them. In total, investigators have now detained 76 suspects.
US embassy warns of new attacks
The US embassy in Sri Lanka warned on Twitter of new attacks this weekend, calling for churches and large crowds to be avoided. In a travel warning, the Israeli government called on all citizens to leave Sri Lanka as quickly as possible and spoke of an „increased concrete danger“. For security reasons, the Catholic Church canceled all services in Colombo until 29 April.
The attacks were already having an effect on tourism, though not yet clear: according to the tourism authority, 2.3 million travelers arrived in Sri Lanka last year alone. 400 percent more than ten years ago, immediately after the end of the civil war. Shiromal Cooray, head of the Jetwing hotel in Negombo, said, „Just a few days after the attacks, there’s a reversal of the trend,“ „Exact numbers I can not name, but we’re already losing a significant amount of our business.“
