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Sri Lanka declared a day of national mourning and respected three minutes of silence at 8:30 am local time, exactly 48 hours after the first explosion at St. Anthony's Church in Colombo. The record of the attacks on Easter Sunday is today 310 dead and 500 wounded. For now, the eyes are turned to a group Islamist who allegedly organized these attacks.
Sri Lanka paid a poignant tribute on Tuesday to 310 dead and 500 injured suicide bombings on Easter Sunday, the deadliest Islamist attacks in South Asia, which led to the declaration of the state of emergency.
The island of 21 million people remained silent for three minutes at 08:30 local time of the first suicide bomber explosion two days ago at the Catholic Church of St. Anthony of Colombo.
A day of national mourning
The government has declared a day of national mourning. Shops selling liquor are closed, flags are at half-mast and radios and televisions have to adapt their musical programming.
At the Saint-Antoine church, dozens of people prayed in silence, candles in their hands, some with great difficulty holding back their tears. At the end of the three minutes of silence, the crowd began a prayer aloud.
About 30 kilometers further north, in the locality of Negombo, a commemorative mass was also held in the morning at San Sebastián Church, another site of a suicide attack targeting the Christian minority. Coffins were brought to tables by turns, in front of relatives who were shaking with sobs. " There are so many bodies that we can not present them all at the same time, " Anthony Jayakody, Auxiliary Bishop of Colombo who celebrated Mass, told AFP.
TESTIMONY
People are not afraid, on the contrary. The hour is rather to meditation.
Olivier Duflot, tour guide based in Sri Lanka 23/04/2019 - by Oriane Verdier Listen
40 people arrested
At the same time, Sri Lanka continues its hunt for those responsible for the attacks, blamed by the authorities on a little-known Islamist group, the National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ) . The state of emergency came into effect on Monday at midnight to give greater latitude to the security forces. A first since the end of the civil war in 2009, recalls our special envoy to Colombo, Antoine Guinard .
Local police made further arrests, bringing to 40 the number of people arrested. The human toll rose from 290 to 310 deaths after wounded succumbed to their injuries.
Thirty-nine foreigners were killed in the attacks, a senior police official told AFP. A person of French nationality would be among the victims, reports Antoine Guinard , but the information has not yet been confirmed by Paris.
Crisis at the top of the state
Investigators are investigating whether the NTJ has benefited from foreign logistical support. The main feat of this movement so far was the degradation of Buddhist statues last December.
Sri Lankan government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said it was " hard to see how a small organization in this country can do all this ". " We are investigating possible foreign aid and their other links, how they train suicide bombers, how they produced these bombs, " he told AFP.
The organization had been alerted 10 days ago by the police that it was planning suicide attacks on churches and the Indian embassy in Colombo. According to Rajitha Senaratne, this warning was not sent to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe or other senior ministers. An element that could relaunch the crisis at the top of the Sri Lankan state.
The police are under the jurisdiction of President Maithripala Sirisena, who is in open conflict with his head of government. He had fired him in the fall but was forced to reinvest him after seven weeks of political chaos. The two heads of the executive are devoted to mutual animosity.
►Also read: Sri Lanka: "This kind of attack lends itself to accentuate the divisions"
Eight explosions during Easter Sunday
Eight explosions in total shook Sunday this popular country of tourists for its idyllic beaches and its green nature .
In Colombo, three beachfront luxury hotels and a church were hit by suicide bombers. Bombs also exploded in one church in Negombo and another in Batticaloa (east). A few hours later, two more explosions occurred in a hotel in Dehiwala, a southern suburb of Colombo, and in Orugodawatta, in the north of the capital.
About 1.2 million Catholics live in Sri Lanka, a predominantly Buddhist country (70%) that also has 12% Hindu and 10% Muslims. Foreign embassies in Sri Lanka have recommended that their nationals avoid non-imperative travel. The United States, in its advice to travelers, raised the possibility of new attacks.
A homemade bomb was defused on Sunday night near Colombo airport. Another exploded Monday afternoon in a van parked on a street in the capital during the intervention of the mine clearance team, without causing injuries.
►Also read: Sri Lanka wakes up in shock after a series of bombings
(with AFP)