Sri Lanka Catholic church to declare 273 victims, including 11 Indians, of Easter Sunday bomb attack as saints

All the 273 people, including 11 Indians, killed in the 2019 Easter Sunday suicide bombings will be declared as saints on its fifth anniversary, announced Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church.

On 21 April, 2019, nine suicide bombers belonging to the local Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jamaat (NTJ) linked to ISIS carried out a series of blasts that tore through three churches and as many luxury hotels in Sri Lanka.

The move of declaring all 273 people saints was announced by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo, during a mass on Sunday.

“A person can be named a saint only after the completion of five years since one’s sacrifice. Therefore, we will move towards declaring Easter Sunday victims as saints on 21 April this year,” Ranjith said.

“Those who died in churches in April 2019 sacrificed their lives for what they believed in. They came to church because they believed in Christ,” Ranjith said.

According to a report by PTI, Ranjith, over the past five years, was at loggerheads with the Sri Lankan government seeking justice for the victims.

He slammed all investigations as a sham and alleged that it was a political cover-up. Ranjith also sought for an international investigation into the attacks.

The then president Maithripala Sirisena and his top defence hierarchy were accused of inaction to prevent the attack despite being provided with prior intelligence from India.

Also, the court had ordered Sirisena and the police top brass to pay compensation to the victims, but reportedly only part payments had been made so far.

Sirisena denies the charge and blames the then defence establishment for the lapse which led to the coordinated attacks.

The Sri Lankan government said it has arrested hundreds of people and the legal proceedings are moving forward.

Earlier, it was known that 270 people had died in the attacks.

The catholic church has a long process leading to sainthood.

With inputs from PTI