Archbishop of Sri Lanka: Attackers do not represent Islam

Sri Lankan archbishop Malcolm Ranjit told the island that the attackers did not represent Islam and said they did not blame Muslims for Sunday's attacks and left hundreds dead and wounded.

He added that the Church moved immediately after attacks on churches, and contacted all leaders of the sects, including leaders of the Muslim community in order to control the situation to avoid any reaction.

"We faced a very difficult situation, not only because of what happened to the people directly concerned, but also with regard to the relations between the different communities in our country because there was a real risk of misunderstandings and possible confrontations between different communities," he said.

He pointed out that misunderstanding should have been avoided, so "what we did immediately was to contact leaders of all communities, including the Muslim community specifically, to try to establish an understanding with them to control the situation." He said he had asked "in particular Catholics not to react."

He said they called on the priests to direct Christian youth in the country not to follow the course of violence, pointing out that the hate speech can not be criminalized and punished in accordance with the current laws in the country.

He said they had not been told any security warnings in advance "so that we can take precautions," explaining that the official organs blamed the other parties on the responsibility of security failure.

Disregard
Many Sri Lankan Islamic organizations and institutions have repudiated Sunday's attacks.

The Association of Scholars refused to bury the bodies of the "suicide bombers" and a number of Muslim personalities and authorities asked the authorities to arrest Zahran Hashemi in 2017, but the authorities refused on the grounds that there was no evidence of a crime.

Hundreds of Muslims were keen to go to the mosque on the side streets of the Friday prayer service, saying they were inviting their followers to followers of all faiths to help restore peace to Sri Lanka. The government had appealed to them to commit to their homes.

President Maetripala Seressina announced the death of Zahran, the first wanted in the attacks.

Authorities said on Thursday that the death toll from church and hotel attacks was 253 "more" than the 359 previously reported by the police.

Anil Gasinghe, a Health Ministry official, said in a statement that the explosions had torn apart some bodies, making identification difficult. He pointed out that this caused a wrong count of the number of victims.

The president said today that police are looking for 140 people believed to have links to the state. He explained that the authorities arrested seventy of them, and vowed to arrest the rest.

He announced the resignation of the police chief to become the second senior official to leave office as a result of the failure of the authorities to avoid attacks, after the resignation of the Minister of Defense yesterday.

Shorten me
Prime Minister Ranil Wicker Messinghe said police had not taken legal action against Hashem - the first wanted man - despite being named in police investigations, because the law does not punish extremist rhetoric.

He explained in an interview with Al Jazeera that the police did not find any evidence of the penetration of Hashim law is or other instigators of the Buddhists.

On Monday, the authorities revealed that foreigners were from India, Britain, Denmark, the United States, China, France, Turkey, Australia, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Bangladesh and Japan.

The British government on Thursday warned citizens against traveling to Sri Lanka, and the Foreign Ministry said in a statement it advised all citizens to travel only when necessary.