On April 21, 2019, Easter Sunday, there was an attack on three churches in Sri Lanka and three luxury hotels in the commercial capital, Colombo. These were targeted in a series of coordinated ISIS-related terrorist suicide bombings. A total of 289 people were killed, and 500 were severely injured. Two further explosions were reported later.
According to Sri Lankan government officials, the suicide bombers were Sri Lankan citizens who were associated with National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), which was a local militant group with suspected ties with the foreign and were previously known for the attacks against Buddhists and Sufis. On this issue, the Sri Lankan Prime Minister said that, even though Sri Lankan authorities were aware of Sri Lankan jihadists who had returned from Syria, the country’s laws prevented action from being taken. Such loopholes, if existing in other nations, also need to be plugged in.
The Supreme Court had ordered top former authorities, including the former President, Mathripala Sirisena, to take steps for the compensation of the victims of the Easter Sunday attack in 2019. Following this decision by the SC, Jeremy Laurence, the spokesperson of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), urged the Sri Lankan government to provide full compensation to all the victims. He also urged the government to go ahead with an independent investigation to hold the people responsible for the same and release the findings of the inquiries regarding the attack.
Laurence highlighted the need for three prominent aspects to deliver justice to the victims of the 2019 attack: ‘Truth, Justice, and Reparation.’ He added that the victims as well as their representatives take cognizance of this issue and engage themselves in follow-up independent investigation along with the aid of international assistance to hold all the responsible persons to account.
Post the attack, several petitioners action to sought remedies against the authorities for their insufficient actions, alleging that they violated the petitioners’ fundamental rights under Article 126 of the Constitution, owing to the reckless failure of the executive branch which failed to take the cognizance and act accordingly after the information received regarding the premeditation of the attack which could have prevented the attack and tragedy caused to the victims of the same.
The Sri Lankan top court ruled that there was an absence of evidence of any consequential countermeasures taken to prevent the attack beforehand. As per the material evidence observed by the court, several authorities and executives were familiar with the specificity of the likely attackers and their modes of attack, including the targets. The contentions were regarding these officials, that despite having the ability and idea regarding the attack, they failed to proactively act and perform their duty, which led to a huge number of deaths. The court also censured the relevant departments’ actions as a ‘conspicuous failure’ despite having ample opportunities to act accordingly.
The court thus ordered an establishment of a Victim Fund at the Office of Reparation to distribute and keep a track of the ordered sum paid by the top authorities as compensation, including the President, the former Secretary, and the State. The main objective of this action was to grant compensation to the victims of the Easter Sunday Attack of 2019, in a “fair and equitable manner.”
