‘Black Sunday’ to demand justice for victims of Easter bomb attacks

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan Roman Catholic Church officials declared a “Black Sunday” this weekend to demand justice for the victims of 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks that killed more than 260 people, according to The Associated Press.

Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said that the church has been given part of a presidential commission’s report into the coordinated suicide bomb attacks on April 21, 2019, but many questions remain about its findings.

“The most important requirement of the commission has not been fulfilled,” Ranjith said in The Associated Press report.

“The misdirection is that instead of concentrating on … finding the people who were directly responsible for this sad event, the focus has gone in the direction of whether those in power at the time fulfilled their responsibilities or not,” Ranjith said.

Church leaders have asked their congregations to attend Mass on Sunday dressed in black.

Church bells will toll at 8: 45 a.m., the time of the near-simultaneous attacks, and special prayers will be offered for justice for the victims.

Ranjith said the mandate of the commission was to find the people, sources of funding and supporters behind the attacks, but such details were not in the report.

According to The Associated Press, he said the church expects the government to carry out a further investigation with vigor.

“We want to stress that if there is no concrete action with regard to finding answers to those questions … we will be forced to call upon the entire nation to protest on the 21st of April, the second anniversary of the bomb attacks,” he said.