UPDATED: Sunday Mass cancelled across Sri Lanka a week after bombings
Shops were closed, streets were empty and heavy security patrols continued across the country despite police saying the alleged mastermind of the attacks that killed over 250 people had died in one of the suicide blasts.
Continuing government confusion in its investigation -- from drastically lowering the death toll to misidentifying a Brown University student as a militant -- only added to the public's worries. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith told journalists that church officials had seen a leaked security document describing Roman Catholic churches and other denominations as a major target. Ranjith, who is the archbishop of Colombo, asked the faithful across Sri Lanka to stay home for their own safety.It was an extraordinary request for a Catholic clergyman to make, as churches often remain a refuge. It came on the day that priests allowed journalists inside one of the bombed churches, St.
The Easter attackers are "not Muslims. This is not Islam. This is an animal," said Akurana Muhandramlage Jamaldeen Mohamed Jayfer, the chairman of the mosque. "We don't have a word to curse them." On Friday night, soldiers raiding a house in Sri Lanka's Eastern Province fought a gunbattle with suspected militants linked to the bombings, said military spokesman Brig. Sumith Atapattu. After a couple of hours, he said soldiers were "engaged in a clearing operation," adding that some casualties were possible.
Police said investigators had determined that the assailants' military training was provided by someone they called "Army Mohideen," and that weapons training had taken place overseas and at locations in Sri Lanka's Eastern Province.
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