On April 17, 2022, hundreds of Sri Lankans lit candles and displayed banners and placards during a silent protest in the capital Colombo, calling for justice for victims of the April 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks.
Protesters including relatives of the victims accused the Sri Lankan government of failing to deliver justice for the bombings.
Please click on the images for glimpses of the silent protest.
IMAGE: A relative of a victim of the April 2019 Easter Sunday attacks lights a candle during the silent protest to demand on the third anniversary of the bombings near the presidential secretariat in Colombo. All photographs: Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters
IMAGE: 269 people were killed in the attacks on three five star hotels and three churches on April 21, 2019. Among the dead were 45 foreign tourists.
IMAGE: Indian intelligence had alerted the Sri Lankan government about the possibility of such attacks 17 days before the horrific events occured. However, due to the rift between then president Mathripala Sirisena and prime minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, the warnings went unheeded.
IMAGE: Sneha Mindani, 14, one of the survivors of the April 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks, wipes her tears as her father delivers a speech at Sunday's protest.
IMAGE: All the suicide bombers were Sri Lankans, members of the National Thowheeth Jama'ath, a local radical Islamist group.
Two of the bombers -- Mohamed Ibrahim Inshaf Ahamed and Mohamed Ibrahim Ilham Ahamed -- were wealthy men whose journey from affluence to terrorism was the subject of a revealing New York Times investigation.
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff.com
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com
