The Catholic Church will plan for ‘something more’ than the commemoration event that was held last week to mark the first-year anniversary of the Easter Sunday attacks in a bid to push the Government to take swift action against the perpetrators, a spokesman for the Catholic Church Rev. Fr. Jude Krishantha said.
Though not yet planned, he said, the event will take the form of a protest, but it will not be a ‘radical one’.
“People are saying they did not get justice for what happened,” Fr. Krishantha said, adding that their hope is to force the government to identify those responsible and punish them.
A former spokesperson for the Catholic Church Rev.Father Cyril Gamini and parish priests in charge of the targeted St. Sebastian’s and St. Anthony’s churches - Rev Father Manjula Niroshan and Rev. Father Jude Raj Fernando held a press conference last week to press the government for expeditious action to punish the perpetrators.
They said that the Easter Sunday attacks couldn’t be allowed to be swept under the carpet. The Church also said that the Easter Sunday carnage shouldn’t be made a political issue at the upcoming election.
Over 250 people were killed and over 500 injured when suicide bombers targeted three churches and luxury hotels on April 21 last year. The Islamist terrorists were later identified to be a part of National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) that was since banned.
“We want to know who these people are and why the Catholic community was targeted,” Fr. Krishantha said.
By justice he meant to unearth the master minds who aided to plan and carry out the attacks and also action against political authorities and state officials who were aware of an impending attack before it was carried out.
A parliamentary report released last year revealed that top officials received multiple tip-offs regarding the attacks.