Supreme court finds top government, police and intelligence officials were responsible for ‘failing to prevent’ bombings

The supreme court in Sri Lanka has ordered the former president Maithripala Sirisena to pay millions in compensation to the victims of the 2019 Easter bombings, the first time the courts have acknowledged the government’s role in the attacks.

The top court found that Sirisena and several other top government, police and intelligence officials were responsible for “failing to prevent” the bombings in April 2019, “despite receiving intelligence ahead of the attack”.

Parliamentary report says Nilantha Jayawardena had information on attacks 17 days before they happened

A Sri Lankan parliamentary committee that investigated the Easter suicide bombings has concluded the country’s spy chief was primarily responsible for the intelligence failure that led to the deaths of 269 people in the attacks.

In a report released on Wednesday the committee said Nilantha Jayawardena received information on possible attacks as early as 4 April – 17 days before the suicide bombings took place – but there were delays on his part in sharing the intelligence with other agencies.

Action taken following days of attacks on places of worship and Muslim-owned businesses

Sri Lanka has imposed a country-wide curfew after successive days of mob attacks on mosques and Muslim-owned shops in three districts.

Facebook and WhatsApp have also been banned as the government seeks to quell unrest in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday bombings at churches and luxury hotels last month, which killed more than 250 people.

Ban on face coverings in public introduced as 10,000 soldiers deployed to hunt for more suspects

Sri Lankan police have raided the headquarters of a hardline Islamist group founded by the suspected ringleader behind the Easter suicide bombings of churches and hotels. It comes as a ban on face coverings is due to come into force on Monday.

Armed police in the town of Kattankudy searched the headquarters of the National Thawheed Jammath (NTJ) and detained one man at the premises, a Reuters reporter at the scene said. Police did not comment.

Children and suicide bombers among the dead, say authorities, following fierce gun battle in east coast town

Fifteen people including six children have died during a raid on their home by Sri Lankan security forces in which three cornered suicide bombers detonated their explosives and others traded gunfire with police.

Police and soldiers fought a gun battle with occupants of the house for more than an hour on Friday night, a military spokesman said, during which three explosions rocked the property near the eastern town of Kalmunai, about 230 miles (370km) from the capital, Colombo.

Well-educated and wealthy, new details emerge about the nine suicide bombers

According to Sri Lanka’s defence minister, Ruwan Wijewardene, there were nine suicide bombers in total – mostly well-educated and from wealthy families. Eight have been identified and one of them was a woman, he said, though Sri Lankan authorities have refused to officially name any of the attackers yet.

One of the attackers is said to be Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed, who studied aerospace engineering at Kingston University in London from 2006 to 2007.

Negombo struggles with scale of its loss as victims of Easter attack are buried in mass graves

A father with his arms around the shoulders of his two daughters. Parents and children posing for a family portrait. Dozens of black-and-white photographs of individuals. On posters and leaflets plastered across Negombo, the faces of the dead were everywhere on Tuesday, as mass funerals were held for those killed in Sunday’s terrorist attack.

Outside St Sebastian’s church, where at least 100 people were killed, a makeshift chapel was built under a tent in the courtyard. Throughout the morning, more than 20 coffins were carried in, one-by-one, before a mass funeral service. “There are so many bodies that we can’t accommodate them all at once,” said Anthony Jayakody, Colombo’s auxiliary bishop.