Question

What is major terrorism in Sri Lanka

Answer 1

Answer:

More than 300 people have been killed in simultaneous explosions at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka that also injured some 500 victims. The coordinated attacks took place on Sunday morning.

According to media reports, there were eight blasts in all, including at churches in Negombo and Kochchikade in the country’s west, and Batticaloa in the east. Three luxury hotels in the capital Colombo were also targeted.

Sri Lanka’s government says the attacks were carried out by National Thowheeth Jamaath, a little-known radical Islamist group. Colombo has declared an indefinite national curfew and blocked social media networks such as Facebook and WhatsApp in order to prevent the spread of rumors that might spark intercommunal violence, as happened in March 2018 when Buddhist mobs attacked Muslim mosques, businesses, and homes.

Forty suspects have been detained in connection with the bombings. On Tuesday, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks but authorities have not confirmed the group’s involvement.

The targets

Sri Lanka has more than 22 million inhabitants. Of these, about three-fourths are ethnic Sinhalese, most of whom are Buddhist. About a sixth of Sri Lankans identify as Tamil—either of Sri Lankan or Indian descent—and are mostly Hindu. About 10 percent of the population is Muslim, and 7 percent Christian—a group that includes both Tamil and Sinhalese.

Religions of Sri Lanka

Buddhist

Hindu

Muslim

Roman Catholic

1/2

6.1%

9.7%

12.6%

70.2%

Religion Percentage

Buddhist 70.2

Hindu 12.6

Muslim 9.7

Roman Catholic 6.1

Other Christian 1.3

Other 0.05

Given that three of the blasts occurred at churches, timed for Easter services, at least part of the attack was aimed at the country’s more than 1.5 million Christians. The almost simultaneous blasts left no time to warn other churchgoers.

Reuters cites the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka, which represents more than 200 churches and Christian organizations, as having recorded 86 incidents of discrimination, threats, and violence against Christians last year.

The other main targets seem to be people who would frequent Colombo’s hotels—usually a mix of tourists, business people, and wealthy locals. At least 30 of the dead are believed to be foreigners.

Answer 2

Terrorism in Sri Lanka has been a highly destructive phenomenon during the periods of the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983–2009) and the first and second JVP insurrections (1971 and 1987–89, respectively). A common definition of terrorism is the systematic use or threatened use of violence to intimidate a population or government for political, religious, or ideological goals.[1][2] Sri Lanka is a country that has experienced some of the worst known acts of modern terrorism, such as suicide bombings, massacres of civilians and assassination of political and social leaders, that posed a significant threat to the society, economy and development of the country. The Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1978 is the legislation, that provides the powers to law enforcement officers to deal with issues related to terrorism in Sri Lanka.[3] It was first enacted as a temporary law in 1979 under the presidency of J. R. Jayewardene, and later made permanent in 1982.

Terrorism found in Sri Lanka can be mainly categorized in to ethno-nationalist terrorism, left wing terrorism and state terrorism. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) are mainly accused of the destruction caused by terrorism in the country.[4][5][6] The LTTE, also known as Tamil Tigers is a deadly extremist militant group that has launched a campaign of violence and bloodshed in Sri Lanka, to seize control of the country from the Sinhalese ethnic majority to create an independent Tamil state.[7][8][9][10] This campaign led to the Sri Lankan Civil War, which ran from 1983 until 2009, when the LTTE was decisively defeated by the Sri Lankan Military. Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna is a Marxist-Leninist, communist party, which was involved in two armed uprisings against the ruling governments in 1971 (SLFP) and 1987–89 (UNP). After the two unsuccessful insurrections the JVP entered democratic politics in 1994.