Sri Lanka on Thursday marked the third anniversary of multiple suicide bomb attacks on Catholic churches and tourist hotels on Easter Sunday.

This happened amid complaints that the government had failed to conduct proper investigations.

Catholics organised services in churches throughout the country as members of parliament marked a minute’s silence during their sessions as part of the events to remember the 271 killed in the attacks.

Islamic extremist groups carried out six suicide attacks on churches and hotels on April 21, 2019.

The head of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, complained that the current government failed to investigate the attacks properly.

The cardinal said there was a need for the government to find out the motive behind the attacks and the people responsible, and those who failed to prevent the disaster.

“The failure to carry out detailed investigations not only on the groups responsible for the suicidal attacks. But to go beyond that to probe those persons who failed to act on advance intelligence reports about the possible attacks is regrettable,’’ Mr Ranjith told a memorial service in Colombo on Thursday.

A presidential commission recommended that action should be initiated against former President Maithripala Sirisena for failing to take precautionary action to prevent the attacks despite the availability of foreign intelligence reports about the plan by Islamic groups.

However, no action had been taken against Mr Sirisena, and he currently serves as a government member in parliament.

Minister of Public Security Prasanna Ranatunga on Thursday told parliament that 735 people had been arrested in connection with the attacks, and 442 of them were still in custody while inquiries were pending.

But the Catholic church claimed that they were not satisfied with the investigations so far. 

(dpa/NAN)