And again, Sri Lanka is numbed by explosions. This time it’s a shootout between Sri Lanka’s army troop and Islamic militants; a fierce gun battle erupted between them on Friday evening in Sainthamaruthu in Ampara, to the south of the town of Batticaloa, site of one of the Easter Sunday blasts at three churches and four luxury hotels.

During the investigation when the troop headed towards the safe house three explosion triggered and gunfire began. In this shootout almost 15 were killed in which six were children. A police spokesman said that three suspected suicide bombers were among the 15 dead after the shootout. Military spokesman Sumith Atapattu said “Troops retaliated and raided the safe house where a large cache of explosives had been stored”. He also said the militants were suspected members of the National Towheed Jama’at (NTJ), which has been blamed for last Sunday’s attacks.

The government has said nine homegrown, well-educated suicide bombers carried out the Easter Sunday attacks, eight of whom had been identified. One was a woman. On Friday they were trying to track down 140 people they believe have links with Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings.

It’s been 5 days after the Easter bombing and still the scenario is same, Sri Lanka is on alert and it is also been said that the terrorists are planning more attack.

Considering the situation in Sri Lanka the US has ordered all the American diplomat families to leave the country. Apart from the US, UK, Australia and Canada have advised their citizens to leave the country and abort their plans to travel to Sri Lanka.

The travel advisory of The US has upgraded the safety and security warning for traveling to Sri Lanka to “Level 3: Reconsider travel”, from “Level 2: Exercise increased caution”. “Level 4: Do not travel” is the direst alert, advising against traveling to countries in that category.

After the end of decade long civil war in Sri Lanka in 2009 this the direst attack thus destroying the peace and harmony of the country. Alongside it also destroyed the tourism of Sri Lanka that it built and was a big part of its growth as a country.

Though the Islamic State had not provided evidence to back its claim that it was behind the attacks but if it’s true, it would be one of the worst attacks carried out by the group outside Iraq and Syria.

  Christian, festival, Sri Lanka, terrorism