Dead bodies of victims lie inside St. Sebastian's Church damaged in blast in Negombo, north of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, April 21, 2019 (AP Photo/Chamila Karunarathne) | Photo Credit: AP

Colombo, Sri Lanka: At a time when the world had hardly recovered from the agony of Christchurch attacks in New Zealand, a spate of serial bomb blasts in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday reminded the world of the terror threat that is far from gone.

The pearl of the East was rocked by not one but eight blasts in Colombo, Negombo, Kochchikade, and Batticaloa at places of worship and high-end hotels. The attack was meant to inflict maximum casualties, which it did, and target the economy and religious integrity of a resurgent democracy.

The violence of this magnitude hadn’t been witnessed in the island nation ever since the days of the deadly civil war between the government and the LTTE in 2009. There have been sporadic cases of violence but nothing of this magnitude.

Six initial blasts took place at 8.45 a.m.(local time) as people started gathering for Easter Sunday masses in churches in churches at Negombo, Batticaloa and Colombo’s Kochchikad during Easter services –prompting people to believe that the attacks were religiously motivated.

However, three blasts also occurred at high-end hotels in Shangri-La, Kingsbury and Cinnamon Grand luxury hotels, indicative of a larger ploy to hit the economy of a fledgling democracy – a signature of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

Tourism remains the mainstay of the Sri Lankan economy and targeting of hotels frequented by foreigners points at a larger ploy than to just foment religious tensions.

A curfew was placed “until further notice” and social media networks were temporarily suspended.

The blasts snuffed 215 lives including three Indians, one Portuguese, two Turks, three Britons, and another two holding nationalities of both UK and US. Another 500 were injured and nine foreign nationals remain missing.

The attack was condemned by world leaders from all around the globe including the Vatican, EU, India, US, Germany, Israel and Pakistan.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in a statment said eight people have been arrested in connection with the serial blasts. "So far the names that have come up are local," but that investigators would look into whether the attackers had any "overseas links," Wickremesinghe said.

Meanwhile, EAM confirmed that the National Hospital via the Indian High Commission in Colombo informed about the death of three Indian nationals. Their names are Lakshmi, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh.

India condemned the “cold-blooded and barbaric” attacks stating the attacks at the places of worship serve as a grim reminder of the serious challenge that terror poses to the world and the region.

No group has claimed the responsibility for the attack thus far. However, individual accounts of the attack at Cinnamon Hotel, claimed the attack to be suicide bombing.

