Muslim Religious Affairs Coordinating Officer Dr. Hassan Moulana humbly greets Archbishop of Colombo His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith after draping a Golden Shawl around him as a sign of honour at the main event of remembering the victims of the Easter Sunday Terror Attacks held at St Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade yesterday to mark two years since the suicide attacks on April 21, 2019. Most Ven Omalpe Sobitha Thera is in the centre. Picture by Sulochana Gamage
Colombo Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith yesterday reiterated that the Catholic Church will continue its struggle to find out who carried out the Easter Sunday attacks that killed more than 260 innocent civilians.
“We are surprised that even after two years, answers to the questions of who and why and what of these attacks have not been found by the relevant authorities,” the Archbishop said addressing a special commemoration event held to mark the second anniversary of the Easter Sunday attacks at the St. Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade yesterday morning.
He stressed the importance of implementing the recommendations made by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on Easter Sunday attacks soon.
The Archbishop while reaffirming that there is no connection with religion and their teachings to murder, urged the Muslim community in the country to rise up against who try to instrumentalize and exploit Islam for their own purposes.
“Rise up and defend yourself against those who try to instrumentalize Islam to fulfill their own purposes. Oppose Wahhabism and organizations that promote such ideologies. Understand the global situation in organizing such crimes. They are not necessarily in favour of you,” he said.
He said that the Criminal Investigations Department and other agencies have failed to unearth the Easter Sunday attackers and their purposes. It is surprising that the investigations are carried out to suit day-to-day fortunes, he added.
The Archbishop deplored what he described as the lethargic attitude of the previous Government and the incumbent government in conducting investigations into the Easter Sunday attacks.
“We have to stress that what is happening at this moment is an attitude of no care, where all the factors are not properly investigated in a coordinated and organized fashion,” he said.
He said that there are political reasons behind some of the investigations very often.
“Jesus taught us to forgive and pray for our detractors. Even though we wish to forgive all these things we would like to know what really happened,” he added. “We defeated the attempts made by different political and other forces to create animosity between the Christians, Muslims and Buddhists in the aftermath of the attacks. We have not reacted in a way that would lead to such a disaster.”
The Archbishop paid his gratitude to the members of Maha Sangha and the Buddhist community who showed solidarity and brotherhood in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday attacks.
He said that he believes that political posturing and the need for safeguarding alliances have impeded the process of finding the truth behind the Easter Sunday attacks.
“It is in this light we organized black Sunday programme in churches in order to stress that we are still looking out for the truth about these events,” he told the gathering.
He said that he took every effort to prevent the clashes between the Sinhala and Muslim communities in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday Terror Attacks. He said such subtle manouvres to incite the Sinhalese community against Muslims were negated. What transpired during the parliamentary debate on Easter Sunday attacks should seriously be examined.
Most Ven Omalpe Sobitha Thera, Apostolic Nuncio in Sri Lanka Archbishop Brian Udaigwe and a Moulavi also spoke.
