The bomb blasts that shook Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday shattered a decade-long peace on the island nation, once again bringing to the fore the underlying tensions in the nation’s society and polity. The gruesome bombings were a stark reminder of the nation’s violent past, when a 25-year civil war took more than 70,000 lives and ended when Sri Lankan forces finally defeated the Tamil Tigers in 2009.
The carefully coordinated and meticulously planned attacks first targeted busy Easter services at churches in the cities of Colombo, Negombo, and Batticaloa. Then blasts spread through three luxury hotels in the capital city of Colombo: the Shangri La, Cinnamon Grand, and Kingsbury. At least 39 foreigners are among those killed in the attacks, including at least three Indians, five British citizens, two Turkish nationals, and two Chinese citizens.
Clearly Sri Lanka’s minority Christian community, accounting for less than 10 percent of the total population of 21.4 million, was the main target of Sunday’s attack. While religious tensions have grown in recent years, with the emergence of radical Islamist groups on the one hand and a surge in ultra-nationalist Buddhism led by the Bodu Bala Sena on the other, Christians had so far not been the targets of violence in Sri Lanka. But now global narratives are seemingly influencing Sri Lanka’s local conflict.
Violent attacks

Stung by these attacks, the Sri Lankan government was forced to take a number of measures so as to project a semblance of order. The president appointed a three person panel to investigate the bombings even as additional powers have been given to the Police and Security Forces to detain and interrogate people. The government also temporarily blocked social media, including Facebook and Instagram.

And then the Sri Lankan government finally pinged a little-known radical Islamist group, National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), for the attacks. Last year, this group was responsible for vandalizing Buddhist statues, but so far has had no history of carrying out such spectacular violent attacks. On Tuesday, it became more apparent that the group received support from a global terror network for this attack though the suicide bombers have all been declared to be Sri Lankan citizens.
Given that a well planned and well coordinated attack of this complexity could not have been expected without external support, some had pointed out early that there was a possibility of a likely Islamic State connection. There have been reports about the presence of around 100 Sri Lankan fighters in Syria and Iraq, giving some credibility to the IS imprint in these attacks. But what is really significant about these attacks is the apparent serious intelligence failure in heeding early warnings. Ten days before the bombings, Sri Lankan security services were warned that a radical Islamist group was planning suicide attacks against churches, but there was no follow up action.