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Agence France-Presse

Father Suranga Warnakulasuriya said prayers alone in his church on Sunday, as Catholic services were suspended across Sri Lanka for the second straight week since the Easter bomb attacks.
With the army staging raids across the country and authorities maintaining high levels of security, the country’s 1.25 million Christians are still on edge after jihadist bombers killed 257 people.
Warnakulasuriya has been saying mass in an empty church in Negombo, just north of the capital, every day since the slaughter at three hotels and three churches, one not far from his.
“Sometimes we feel lonely by not being able to celebrate the mass together,” said the fresh-faced 32-year-old who only became a priest in 2015.

With churches closed, the country’s Catholics had to make do Sunday with a second televised mass by the Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith.
A few people went to St Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo to say prayers in front of a barrier set up in front of the church where dozens died on April 21. But the faithful are frustrated.
“It’s not enough because we cannot receive the Eucharist through television, that’s the important thing,” said Shehani Rangana, 33, whose father was among the dead at St Sebastian’s church in Negombo.

Since the bombings, Catholics – shaken by physical and psychological scars from the jihadist attacks – have been organising their own services and solidarity groups.
Sometimes Warnakulasuriya and other priests say prayers in the homes of parishioners. Rangana put up a cross of dried leaves at the door of her home for one service.
From Sri Lanka to Indonesia, more mothers are becoming suicide bombers – and killing their children too
Warnakulasuriya said he goes to up to 20 homes each day to celebrate communion.
“They share their views on this attack,” he said. “Sometimes they have hatred feelings, so we try to control them, to persuade them not to have revenge. We try to calm them by saying that Jesus is not hatred but love.”

Around St Sebastian’s Church, ravaged by a suicide bomber who killed 102 people, nearly all the houses have white flags, the colour of mourning.
The bigger pennants are a sign that someone from the house died in the massacre.
The local cemetery did not have enough room to bury all the dead and one local resident offered land so that victims could be buried together.
Sri Lanka attacks: why the wealthy and successful become suicide bombers
Two nuns watched a nine-year-old girl, Nethudini, as she sat on a chair in one of the houses drawing with an art kit offered by a local family.
The young girl’s mother died in the Negombo attack on April 21. Nethudini survived with injuries but has barely spoken nor cried since. She drew a picture of St Sebastian’s in blood red.
The Catholic leadership has assigned a support team of a priest, two nuns and two volunteers for many of the families that were torn apart by the bombers.




Father George Anthony Fernando is leading the team watching over Nethudini and her family.
“Depending on their requirements, counselling will take the time needed. I might come two or three times per week to visit them. I have been assigned only this one family,” said Fernando.
The priest said that the contact with the family was even more important as “life has slowed down” with no services being held and the Christian community is in fear.
Public schools will only reopen on Monday after an Easter break was extended because of the bombings. Security forces will be on duty around schools in a sign of the charged atmosphere.

Sri Lanka on Sunday expelled over 600 foreign nationals, including around 200 Islamic clerics, said a minister on Sunday.
Home Affairs Minister Vajira Abeywardena said the clerics had entered the country legally, but amid a security crackdown after the attacks were found to have overstayed their visas, for which fines were imposed and they were expelled from the island.
“Considering the current situation in the country, we have reviewed the visas system and took a decision to tighten visa restrictions for religious teachers,” Abeywardena said. “Out of those who were sent out, about 200 were Islamic preachers.”
New Sri Lanka church attacks planned, Colombo archbishop reveals
The minister did not give the nationalities of those who have been expelled, but police have said many foreigners who have overstayed their visas since the Easter attacks were from Bangladesh, India, Maldives and Pakistan.
“There are religious institutions which have been getting down foreign preachers for decades,” Abeywardena said. “We have no issues with them, but there are some which mushroomed recently. We will pay more attention to them.”

The minister said the government was overhauling the country’s visa policy following fears that foreign clerics could radicalise locals for a repeat of the April 21 suicide bombings, which targeted three Christian churches and three luxury hotels.
Sri Lanka has imposed a state of emergency since the attacks and given wide powers to troops and police to arrest and detain suspects for long periods.
House-to-house searches are being carried out across the country looking for explosives and propaganda material of Islamic extremists.


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Sri Lanka bombings

Sri Lanka blasts: Catholics say lonely prayers as churches remain shut for a second week

Sri Lankans light candles and pray outside St Anthony’s Church in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photo: AP

A Sri Lankan Christian prays at a barricade near St. Anthony's Shrine in Colombo on May 5, 2019, a two week after a series of bomb blasts targeting churches and luxury hotels on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka. - With the army staging raids across the country and authorities maintaining high levels of security, the country's 1.25 million Christians are still on edge after jihadist bombers killed 257 people. (Photo by LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI / AFP)

A Sri Lankan Christian watches a live broadcast of a service conducted by the Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, at their house near St. Anthony's Shrine in Colombo on May 5, 2019, two week after a series of bomb blasts targeting churches and luxury hotels on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka. - With the army staging raids across the country and authorities maintaining high levels of security, the country's 1.25 million Christians are still on edge after jihadist bombers killed 257 people. (Photo by LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI / AFP)

Sri Lankans light candles and pray outside St. Anthony's Church in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Tuesday, April 30, 2019. Sri Lanka is limping back to normalcy after the devastating bomb attacks on Easter Sunday that killed more than 250 people, meanwhile the archbishop said that the government's security operations to apprehend Islamic extremists who may be at large is unsatisfactory despite assurances from leaders. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

A general view of St. Anthony's Shrine in Colombo on May 5, 2019, two week after a series of bomb blasts targeting churches and luxury hotels on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka. - With the army staging raids across the country and authorities maintaining high levels of security, the country's 1.25 million Christians are still on edge after jihadist bombers killed 257 people. (Photo by LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI / AFP)

In this picture taken on May 4, 2019, Catholic priest Father Suranga Warnakulasuriya speaks during an interview with AFP in Negombo. - Father Suranga Warnakulasuriya said prayers alone in his church Sunday, as Catholic services were suspended across Sri Lanka for the second straight week since the Easter suicide attacks. (Photo by ISHARA S. KODIKARA / AFP)

Sri Lanka attacks: why the wealthy and successful become suicide bombers

Kumari Fernando, who lost her husband, Dulip Fernando, and two children, Dulakghi and Vimukthi, during the bombing at St Sebastian's Church. Photo: Reuters

A soldier stands guard outside the Grand Mosque, days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Negombo, Sri Lanka April 26, 2019,

A group of men purported to be the the Sri Lanka bomb attackers is seen at an unknown location in this still image taken from video uploaded by the Islamic State's AMAQ news agency April 23, 2019 and received by Reuters via SITE Intel Group. Video uploaded April 23, 2019. AMAQ via SITE INTEL GROUP/Handout via REUTERS TV ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

From Sri Lanka to Indonesia, more mothers are becoming suicide bombers – and killing their children too

Indonesian militant Dian Yulia Novi is flanked by her husband Nur Solihin and her recruiter Tutin as face court in Jakarta in 2017. Photo: AP

In this Sunday, May 13, 2018 file photo, Surabaya Police Chief Col. Rudi Setiawan shows a picture of the family of Dita Oepriarto who carried out the church attacks on Sunday, May 13, in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia. The family fanned out on Sunday with suicide bombs attached to themselves and their children, attacking three churches. The entire family was killed in the attacks that killed a number of people and injured dozens of others. (AP Photo/Nanda Andrianta)

Soldiers look at seized items at the site of an overnight battle between Sri Lankan security forces and suicide bombers in the eastern town of Kalmunai on April 27, 2019. - Fifteen people including six children died in a battle between Sri Lankan security forces and suicide bombers who blew themselves up in the latest fallout from the Easter attacks, police said on April 27. (Photo by STRINGER / AFP)

This handout photo from the Surabaya local government (Pemerintah Kota Surabaya) taken on May 13, 2018 and received by AFP on May 14, 2018 shows firefighters trying to extinghuish a fire after a blast outside the Gereja Pantekosta Pusat Surabaya (Surabaya Centre Pentecostal Church) in Surabaya. - A series of blasts, including at least one suicide bombing, struck churches in Indonesia on May 13, killing at least 11 people and wounding dozens in the deadliest attack for years in the world's biggest Muslim-majority country. (Photo by Andy PINARIA / PEMERINTAH KOTA SURABAYA / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / PEMERINTAH KOTA SURABAYA / ANDY PINARIA" - NO MARKETING - NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

In this picture taken on April 26, 2019, security personnel display seized items after they raid what believed to be an Islamist safe house in the eastern town of Kalmunai. - Fifteen people, including six children, died during a raid by Sri Lankan security forces as three cornered suicide bombers blew themselves up and others were shot dead, police said on April 27. (Photo by STRINGER / AFP)

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With the army staging raids across the country and authorities maintaining high levels of security, the country’s 1.25 million Christians are still on edge after jihadist bombers killed 257 people


With the army staging raids across the country and authorities maintaining high levels of security, the country’s 1.25 million Christians are still on edge after jihadist bombers killed 257 people.


Sri Lanka

Terrorism

Religion