Topic: Sri Lanka - Terrorist Attacks

[Mimi]

It’s absolutely heartbreaking that these people were doomed to their deaths over 2 weeks ago because of feuding between the president and the prime minister lead to essential information not being shared.

[WhereAngelsPlay]

Killing people at their place of worship has to be as heinous as it gets.  A church on Easter Sunday will likely be full of children. 

I truly hope this isn't in response to that dickhead and what happened at New Zealand.  Heart goes out to all the victims.

I don't hold places of worship in any high regard,people getting moved down of killed just enjoying a night out is no less heinous.


Worship is what got us (Species) into this stupid tit for tat shit.

[Giono]

As expected an Islamist group has claimed responsibility.

Why the frig in Sri Lanka?

[west_london_red]

Why the frig in Sri Lanka?

There will be some pretext but I don’t think any country can consider itself safe from this scourge, black or white, rich or poor, Muslims or otherwise, there’s always an excuses for these attacks when the truth is there is no excuse and today it’s Sri Lanka, next week it will be somewhere else.

[zero zero]

Have the attackers nationalities been released yet ?

Sri Lankans, by the sounds of it

[WhereAngelsPlay]

Sri Lankans, by the sounds of it

So there's the answer.

[zero zero]

So there's the answer.

Yes, you asked a question.

I'm missing your point though, if you could help me out.

[classycarra]

There's no question that this was linked to the NZ attack. Targeting xtians the way Muslims were targeted.

Why did you say this?

[Alan_X]

Why the frig in Sri Lanka?

The Civil War in Sri Lanka lasted form the early eighties until 2009 and was violent and bloody:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_Civil_War

The Tamil Tigers were among the first to use suicide vests and assassinated Rajiv Ghandi. Tamils are Hindu and the majority religion is Buddhist with small populations of Christians and Muslims.

Twenty years of civil war would likely mean ready availability quantities of explosives and detonators.

Why did you say this?

Sri Lankan Government is reporting it as a revenge attack:

An initial probe into deadly suicide bomb attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 300 people shows it was ‘retaliation for Christchurch’. State minister of defence Ruwan Wijewardene told parliament today that ‘the preliminary investigations have revealed that what happened in Sri Lanka’ was a revenge incident. He added: ‘[It] was in retaliation for the attack against Muslims in Christchurch’.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/23/sri-lanka-suicide-bomb-attacks-revenge-christchurch-9289486/?ito=cbshare

This is the group that are likely to be responsible:

NTJ is believed to have separated from the Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamath (SLTJ), also a hardline Islamist organization, in or around 2016. The NTJ's leadership had been condemned by several Sri Lankan Muslim organizations in 2016 for advocating extreme fundamentalist indoctrination of children, and for clashes with Buddhist monks. One of the leaders, Abdul Razik, was arrested for inciting racism.

In 2018, NTJ was linked to vandalism of Buddhist statues following anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka. The group's propaganda highlighted violence against Muslims in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, India and other countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Thowheeth_Jama%27ath

[Alan_X]

Can we keep the thread for news updates and any informed comment.

Please don't use the deaths of 300+ innocent people to push personal agendas.

Thanks.

[BarryCrocker]

Sri Lankan Government is reporting it as a revenge attack:

An initial probe into deadly suicide bomb attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 300 people shows it was ‘retaliation for Christchurch’. State minister of defence Ruwan Wijewardene told parliament today that ‘the preliminary investigations have revealed that what happened in Sri Lanka’ was a revenge incident. He added: ‘[It] was in retaliation for the attack against Muslims in Christchurch’.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/23/sri-lanka-suicide-bomb-attacks-revenge-christchurch-9289486/?ito=cbshare

I'm struggling to see how they came to this conclusion so quickly. That only happened a month ago and this tragedy would have required massive amounts of planning. If it is true it a horrible retaliatory response that hopefully doesn't mean we have another Christchurch type event.

[The North Bank]

Terrorists terrorise, if they can connect themselves to a cause to "legitimise" their actions they'll do so. Every terrorist attack ever has been claimed by the scum doing it as a "response" to something. They're not soldiers and they're not at war, just murdering cowards killing innocent people. Unfortunately there will be ignorant people out there who will perpetuate the cycle, leading to more bloodshed, that's their target audience.

[Mimi]

I'm struggling to see how they came to this conclusion so quickly. That only happened a month ago and this tragedy would have required massive amounts of planning. If it is true it a horrible retaliatory response that hopefully doesn't mean we have another Christchurch type event.

As this Guardian article makes clear, no evidence has been offered by Islamic State who have claimed responsibility, or the government who say the attacks have been in response to Christchurch.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/23/sri-lanka-bombings-first-burials-take-place-on-day-of-mourning

Also in response to Alan’s post, Tamils are also Christians. The majority of the dead would have been Tamils rather than Sinhalese.

[classycarra]

Terrorists terrorise, if they can connect themselves to a cause to "legitimise" their actions they'll do so. Every terrorist attack ever has been claimed by the scum doing it as a "response" to something. They're not soldiers and they're not at war, just murdering cowards killing innocent people. Unfortunately there will be ignorant people out there who will perpetuate the cycle, leading to more bloodshed, that's their target audience.

Indeed. These fuckers aren't doing this for any reason other than hating people different to themselves, let's not try to help them out rationalising

That's why I was a little concerned that good people in here appeared to be connecting the dots for them (no offence intended thejbs, and there's a chance you were basing it on reporting rather than conjecture which I was concerned about)

[classycarra]

As this Guardian article makes clear, no evidence has been offered by Islamic State who have claimed responsibility, or the government who say the attacks have been in response to Christchurch.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/23/sri-lanka-bombings-first-burials-take-place-on-day-of-mourning

Also in response to Alan’s post, Tamils are also Christians. The majority of the dead would have been Tamils rather than Sinhalese.

Does feel odd to me. If it was in response, islamist bombers would tend to have advertised that by now (or on the day).

[Giono]

The Civil War in Sri Lanka lasted form the early eighties until 2009 and was violent and bloody:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_Civil_War

The Tamil Tigers were among the first to use suicide vests and assassinated Rajiv Ghandi. Tamils are Hindu and the majority religion is Buddhist with small populations of Christians and Muslims.

Twenty years of civil war would likely mean ready availability quantities of explosives and detonators.

Sri Lankan Government is reporting it as a revenge attack:

An initial probe into deadly suicide bomb attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 300 people shows it was ‘retaliation for Christchurch’. State minister of defence Ruwan Wijewardene told parliament today that ‘the preliminary investigations have revealed that what happened in Sri Lanka’ was a revenge incident. He added: ‘[It] was in retaliation for the attack against Muslims in Christchurch’.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/23/sri-lanka-suicide-bomb-attacks-revenge-christchurch-9289486/?ito=cbshare

This is the group that are likely to be responsible:

NTJ is believed to have separated from the Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamath (SLTJ), also a hardline Islamist organization, in or around 2016. The NTJ's leadership had been condemned by several Sri Lankan Muslim organizations in 2016 for advocating extreme fundamentalist indoctrination of children, and for clashes with Buddhist monks. One of the leaders, Abdul Razik, was arrested for inciting racism.

In 2018, NTJ was linked to vandalism of Buddhist statues following anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka. The group's propaganda highlighted violence against Muslims in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, India and other countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Thowheeth_Jama%27ath

Oh, I'm aware of Sri Lankan history. I have known many Sri Lankans in my life.

It just seems so odd as the civil war has been over for a while. And I'm sure the Sri Lankan gov is monitoring any Tamil threats that may linger.  And the muslim population is so small.


Seems such a random target.

[Alan_X]

As this Guardian article makes clear, no evidence has been offered by Islamic State who have claimed responsibility, or the government who say the attacks have been in response to Christchurch.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/23/sri-lanka-bombings-first-burials-take-place-on-day-of-mourning

Also in response to Alan’s post, Tamils are also Christians. The majority of the dead would have been Tamils rather than Sinhalese.

Thanks - I wasn't aware of that.

[zero zero]

Also in response to Alan’s post, Tamils are also Christians. The majority of the dead would have been Tamils rather than Sinhalese.

I thought Alan had asked for informed opinion. Do you have any source for that claim?

The deadliest attacked was atSt Sebastian’s church in Negombo, which has a 75% Sinhala population. If murdering Tamil Christians was their priority they could have picked any church in the Northern Province.

People (and the media) are conflating two different things, I think. One was what's called in the West a Civil, but in Sri Lanka is considered an anti-terrorist action against the LTTE. The government at the time was the People's Alliance which comprised of one of the two main political parties but also the JVP, EPDP, EROS, EPRLF. All of those are ex-terrorist organisations that laid down their arms. The first "E" in latter three stands for Eelam but when faced with liquidation by the LTTE they chose to join the democratic mainstream.

One of the biggest turning points in the war was when Karuna, the head the Eastern LTTE, faced liquidation by the LTTE (bit of a running theme) and joined forces with the Sri Lankan military to eventually defeat the LTTE.

It far too simplistic to still characterise the war as a Sinhala vs Tamil conflict. At the end it was everybody else versus the LTTE. I understand why the war was/is portrayed that way for Western audiences, but it doesn't really bear resemblance to ground realities.

That is at and end. The subject of this thread is something else.

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So, it appears that IS are claiming responsibility for these attacks. The SL government (or some faction within it) claim that the attacks in Sri Lanka were a " ...in retaliation for the attack against Muslims in Christchurch".

Personally, I can't see the link between a white supremacist in New Zealand and Easter churchgoers and holiday makers in Sri Lanka, but there you go.

[west_london_red]

I am guessing that Mimi said most of the dead are Tamils on the assumption that most Christians are Tamil in ethnicity rather then Sinhalese? The Sri Lankan Christians I have met have been Tamil rather then Sinhalese, but then there’s a large Tamil community where I live and hardly any Sinhalese so that might explain it.

But anyway, the ethnicity of the victims shouldn’t really bother any of us.

[TepidT2O]

I am guessing that Mimi said most of the dead are Tamils on the assumption that most Christians are Tamil in ethnicity rather then Sinhalese? The Sri Lankan Christians I have met have been Tamil rather then Sinhalese, but then there’s a large Tamil community where I live and hardly any Sinhalese so that might explain it.

I agree.

[zero zero]

But anyway, the ethnicity of the victims shouldn’t really bother any of us.

Ethnicity appears to bother non-Sri Lankans more than it bothers us. Which bothers me . I don't recall a debate about the ethnicity of the victims after the Paris attacks or the religious beliefs of the victims of any of the attacks in London.

I am guessing that Mimi said most of the dead are Tamils on the assumption that most Christians are Tamil in ethnicity rather then Sinhalese?

S/he'd be wrong.

Ethnic groups:
Sinhalese 74.9%, Sri Lankan Tamil 11.2%, Sri Lankan Moors 9.2%, Indian Tamil 4.2%, other 0.5% (2012 est.)
Religions:
Buddhist (official) 70.2%, Hindu 12.6%, Muslim 9.7%, Roman Catholic 6.1%, other Christian 1.3%, other 0.05% (2012 est.)
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ce.html


I think we can leave ethnicity angle alone now. The death toll stands at 321.

[Not that Gareth]

The death toll has been reduced by about 100. It doesn't impact the fact this was a horrendous vile act but thats a pretty big miscalculation.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48059328

[The Gulleysucker]

The death toll has been reduced by about 100. It doesn't impact the fact this was a horrendous vile act but thats a pretty big miscalculation.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48059328

High explosives in a confined area tends to blow people apart into fragments making initial estimates difficult unless you have a precise count of those that were inside and those that survived.

Ghastly, but if those who have to sift through the remains find find three lungs or kidneys on the floor, are they from three people or two?

The initial figures would probably include those who relatives may have feared were among the dead but who have turned up alive, perhaps injured or just not there at the time.

[Not that Gareth]

High explosives in a confined area tends to blow people apart into fragments making initial estimates difficult unless you have a precise count of those that were inside and those that survived.

Ghastly, but if those who have to sift through the remains find find three lungs or kidneys on the floor, are they from three people or two?

The initial figures would probably include those who relatives may have feared were among the dead but who have turned up alive, perhaps injured or just not there at the time.

Yeah, that's probably correct. Also the pressure to come up with a figure probably played a part, not that figure should matter.

[Golden_Child]

Got pissed off at work today. I have a number of Muslims on the team I manage who are absolute gents/ladies and are appalled by this.

I have one member of staff who gave me tons of grief about the new Zealand attack.

I said it was deplorable that anybody would do that for any reason yet said there will be retaliation in the coming weeks.

He asked me today who I thought the perpetrators were. I answered "extremist muslims". He flat out said that the mosque attack was worse because they were "people who loved god". I explained that it was easter so this was also timed for that reason. The reply was "oh well, not proper muslims".

This highlights the problem of ignorance. It's not even religion at this point, more education. Weird thing is, same guy took a pack of non halal chicken meatballs from me last week, saying "I'll make it up to allah". Not the only guy I've known who has done this. Hypocrisy in its purest form and highlights how our system is failing at simple things like respecting others. Pisses me off no end as I'm an atheist who bends rules for my staff who have religious needs but the majority (of my staff and other work colleagues, 100+) are ignorant as fuck outside their own bubble.

[WhereAngelsPlay]

Respecting others is a personal thing and not part of any system imo.

As for your work colleagues,all religious people are hypocrites.

[jooneyisdagod]

Got pissed off at work today. I have a number of Muslims on the team I manage who are absolute gents/ladies and are appalled by this.

I have one member of staff who gave me tons of grief about the new Zealand attack.

I said it was deplorable that anybody would do that for any reason yet said there will be retaliation in the coming weeks.

He asked me today who I thought the perpetrators were. I answered "extremist muslims". He flat out said that the mosque attack was worse because they were "people who loved god". I explained that it was easter so this was also timed for that reason. The reply was "oh well, not proper muslims".

This highlights the problem of ignorance. It's not even religion at this point, more education. Weird thing is, same guy took a pack of non halal chicken meatballs from me last week, saying "I'll make it up to allah". Not the only guy I've known who has done this. Hypocrisy in its purest form and highlights how our system is failing at simple things like respecting others. Pisses me off no end as I'm an atheist who bends rules for my staff who have religious needs but the majority (of my staff and other work colleagues, 100+) are ignorant as fuck outside their own bubble.

I can strongly relate to this. I grew up in a religious country and the hypocrisy of religious people is staggering. The defence of their religion is essentially a form of the "No true Scotsman" fallacy. But I also think the hypocrisy is stronger the more tribal one gets irrespective of what one is tribal about, be it religion or a sports team.

[GreatEx]

I have one member of staff who gave me tons of grief about the new Zealand attack.

I said it was deplorable that anybody would do that for any reason yet said there will be retaliation in the coming weeks.

He asked me today who I thought the perpetrators were. I answered "extremist muslims". He flat out said that the mosque attack was worse because they were "people who loved god". I explained that it was easter so this was also timed for that reason. The reply was "oh well, not proper muslims".

I'd be looking for reasons to sack that c*nt if I were you. I can lend you my boss if you want, he's got plenty of miles on the clock with that kinda thing.

[Giono]

Respecting others is a personal thing and not part of any system imo.

As for your work colleagues,all religious people are hypocrites.

Truth. Too often religion is the excuse not to respect. Religion is tribal.

[Giono]

I can strongly relate to this. I grew up in a religious country and the hypocrisy of religious people is staggering. The defence of their religion is essentially a form of the "No true Scotsman" fallacy. But I also think the hypocrisy is stronger the more tribal one gets irrespective of what one is tribal about, be it religion or a sports team.

Very true. Tribalism is at the heart of a lot of the earth's ills. I guess the difference between sports and religion is that in sports common reality interupts....goals are scored or are not. But in religious tribes there is far more carte blanche to rationalize anything.

[dalarr]

Haven’t been following this as closely as usual but I don’t like how the Government has been handling this so far. Suspects getting killed left and right. And now the family of key suspect Gashim has been killed. If we are to get some answers they have to leave somebody alive.

(That being said, I know Sri Lanka has had a violent history in recent years and I know absolutely nothing about the culture. So I’ll delete the post if someone tells me that I’m out of line)

[Giono]

Everything coming out of Sri Lanka seems a bit sketchy. From what I understand the PM and President are rivals. Some have suggested that rivalry may have led to the inaction before the attacks. But who to trust...