2019 Sri Lanka Easter Bombings

On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, a series of coordinated suicide bombings struck three churches and three luxury hotels in Sri Lanka. Two further, smaller explosions occurred later that day at a housing complex in Dematagoda and a guest house in Dehiwala. A total of 269 people were killed, most of them Christians, including at least 45 foreign nationals, three police officers, and eight suicide bombers; approximately 500 people were injured. Sri Lankan authorities said a second wave of attacks had been planned but was prevented through government raids.

The churches attacked were the Shrine of St. Anthony and St. Sebastian's Church, both Catholic, in Kotahena and Negombo respectively, and the Protestant Zion Church in Batticaloa. St. Sebastian's suffered the highest church death toll, with a later BBC report putting the figure at 115, including 27 children. The hotels targeted — the Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand, and Kingsbury, all in Colombo — were struck largely during breakfast service. A related blast occurred at the Tropical Inn guest house in Dehiwala.

Sri Lankan government officials stated that all suicide bombers were Sri Lankan citizens linked to National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ), a local Islamist militant group founded by Zahran Hashim. The Islamic State's Amaq News Agency claimed the attackers were IS fighters, and IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi later praised the attackers in a video; however, Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department stated there was no evidence of ISIL's direct involvement, and investigators believed the attack was planned locally, with Zahran allegedly exaggerating his ties to IS.

Investigations later revealed that Indian intelligence had provided Sri Lankan authorities with specific advance warnings about the attack, including information from an ISIL suspect in Indian custody, as early as 4 April 2019 and again shortly before the bombings. These warnings were not acted upon or passed to senior politicians. On 12 January 2023, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka ruled that then-President Maithripala Sirisena and other government authorities had failed to act on the intelligence, and ordered compensation be paid to victims.

In the aftermath, the government declared a state of emergency, imposed curfews, temporarily banned face coverings including the burqa and niqab, and temporarily blocked several social media platforms. A Presidential Commission of Inquiry and a Parliamentary Select Committee separately examined security failures; the latter was ordered terminated by President Sirisena. Following raids in Sainthamaruthu and elsewhere, several additional suspected attackers died, including relatives of Zahran Hashim. The trial of 25 men accused of masterminding the bombings began in November 2021, with defendants facing more than 23,000 charges including conspiracy to murder.