• Catholic Church organises several progs., Apostolic Nunciature to attend St. Anthony’s Kochchikade 

Several programmes have been organised under the leadership of the Catholic Church to observe the fourth anniversary of the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 21 April, 2019, today (21), with the main events to be held at the St. Sebastian's Church in Katuwapitiya and the St. Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, that were targeted in the said terror attacks.

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (20), the National Director of Communications of the Catholic Bishops' Conference, Reverend Jude Krishantha Fernando said that the series of programmes commenced from the St. Sebastian's Church at 6 p.m. yesterday. A special service was held at the Church last evening, which was followed by a march from the Church to the St. Anthony's Church. The march, which passed Katunayake, Ambalanmulla, Thudella, Kandana, Maththumagala, Wattala and Kotahena will mark its end at the St. Anthony's Church at 8.20 a.m. today.

The main programme to commemorate the terror attacks, which will be attended by Apostolic Nunciature to Sri Lanka, Archbishop Brian Udaigwe, Colombo Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, interfaith leaders, and the victims and their family members, will be held at the Kochchikade Church. During the programme, essential medical equipment will be donated to the National Cancer Institute (Apeksha Hospital) in Maharagama.

In addition to the said programmes, a silent protest against the delay in serving justice to the victims of the terror attacks and bringing those responsible before the law will be held in the form of a 'human wall'. During the protest, people will line up along the Colombo-Negombo Main Road from the Kochchikade Church to the Katuwapitiya Church from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.

Four years ago, on Easter Sunday, which fell on 21 April 2019, three Churches (i.e. - the St. Sebastian’s Church, the St. Anthony’s Church, and the Zion Church in Batticaloa) and three luxury Hotels in Colombo (the Cinnamon Grand, The Kingsbury, and the Shangri-La) were targeted in a series of coordinated extremist terror suicide bombings. Later that day, another two bomb explosions took place at a house in Dematagoda and the Tropical Inn Lodge in Dehiwala. A total of 269 people were killed in the bombings, including at least 45 foreign nationals, while at least 500 were injured. All eight of the suicide bombers in the attacks were Sri Lankan citizens associated with the National Thowheed Jama’ath founded by the suicide bomber of the Shangri-La Hotel, Mohamed Cassim Mohamed Zahran, alias Zahran Hashim.