ECONOMYNEXT – On April 21, 2025, Sri Lanka marks the sixth anniversary of the devastating Easter Sunday suicide bombings that claimed no less than 269 lives and injured over 500, casting an extended shadow over the nation’s post-war restoration and nationwide safety.
Six years later, the grief stays uncooked for a lot of Sri Lankans, not solely due to the horror of that day however as a result of justice, accountability, and closure proceed to be elusive.
Because the nation remembers, it should additionally confront the uncomfortable truths behind the assault: the systemic failures, political opportunism, and a justice system mired in delay.
Extra importantly, it should ask what delivering justice actually means, and what it’ll take to realize it.
Implications of the Assault
The Easter Sunday assaults on April 21, 2019, marked one of many deadliest terrorist incidents in Sri Lanka’s historical past, second solely to the worst days of the civil conflict.
The coordinated suicide bombings on church buildings and lodges by Islamist extremists shocked a nation that had simply begun to imagine in lasting peace.
However the implications went far past the lack of life.
Social cohesion was shaken as Muslims, a minority group in Sri Lanka, confronted collective suspicion and reprisal.
The financial system, particularly tourism, nosedived.
Worldwide confidence in Sri Lanka’s safety equipment waned.
Extra insidiously, the assault set the stage for dramatic political adjustments that will reshape the nation’s governance within the years to return.
Delay in Justice
Six years later, the victims’ households are nonetheless asking the identical questions: Who actually deliberate the assaults? Why had been a number of intelligence warnings, particularly from India, ignored? Why was nobody held accountable on the highest ranges of presidency and safety?
Regardless of quite a few investigations—together with a Presidential Fee of Inquiry (PCoI) and a number of other courtroom proceedings—key perpetrators, facilitators, and political enablers stay untouched by the authorized system.
Whereas just a few operatives linked to the assault have been tried, the bigger community, and people who failed to forestall the tragedy regardless of forewarnings, have largely escaped scrutiny or punishment.
Causes for Delay
The explanations for the delay are deeply rooted in a mixture of institutional inertia, deliberate obfuscation, and political interference.
First, the bureaucratic and authorized processes in Sri Lanka are notoriously sluggish, with advanced investigations usually dragged on for years with out decision.
Second, the politicization of regulation enforcement—particularly throughout adjustments in authorities—has meant that investigations had been both stalled or redirected, relying on who was in energy.
Maybe extra importantly, the failure to behave decisively stems from a reluctance to show state and safety sector negligence.
Intelligence reviews, together with these from Indian sources, had warned of imminent assaults. But, each the then-President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe later claimed they had been unaware of those warnings—a declare challenged by testimonies and data.
Politics Behind Easter Assault
The political aftermath of the Easter bombings was nothing wanting seismic.
Simply months later, in November 2019, Gotabaya Rajapaksa received the presidential election in a landslide.
Campaigning closely on a platform of nationwide safety, he promised power and safety in a time of concern.
Many have since raised critical questions:
Was the Easter assault exploited to stoke concern and engineer a political comeback for the Rajapaksa household? Might it have been prevented, and in that case, why wasn’t it? Some conspiracy theories counsel state complicity or willful negligence—allegations but to be conclusively confirmed however by no means absolutely investigated both.
The Rajapaksa regime that adopted used the assault to tighten nationwide safety legal guidelines, marginalize minorities additional, and consolidate govt energy.
Critics argue that quite than pursuing reality, the federal government used the tragedy as a political weapon.
Who Benefited?
Clearly, the Rajapaksa political machine was among the many predominant beneficiaries.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who had served as Protection Secretary in the course of the conflict, positioned himself because the savior Sri Lanka wanted after the assaults.
His victory narrative was constructed on concern, promising to revive a “safe” Sri Lanka—one thing many citizens discovered interesting within the aftermath of terror.
Sure safety sector elites additionally benefited.
The assaults led to elevated budgets and powers for intelligence and navy companies, with little accountability.
In the meantime, ultranationalist and anti-Muslim forces discovered new floor to justify discrimination, harassment, and violence.
For the victims and the broader public, nevertheless, there have been no positive factors—solely losses: misplaced lives, misplaced belief, and a misplaced alternative for nationwide therapeutic.
Delivering Justice: That means for Sri Lankans
Delivering justice for the Easter Sunday assaults is greater than prosecuting just a few suspects or punishing junior-level accomplices.
For many Sri Lankans—particularly the victims’ households—justice means full accountability: holding political leaders, safety officers, and all complicit events accountable.
It additionally means transparency—declassifying key intelligence reviews, releasing the complete findings of the Presidential Fee, and performing on its suggestions.
It means ending impunity for these in energy, and guaranteeing such a failure by no means occurs once more.
Justice additionally has a therapeutic dimension.
Acknowledgment of failure, an apology from the state, and reparations are a part of the broader ethical accountability the federal government owes its residents.
The continued delay not solely deepens the ache of victims however weakens public confidence in democratic establishments.
If such a large, preventable tragedy can go unresolved for years, what hope is there for justice in much less high-profile circumstances? (Colombo/April 20/2025)
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