COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church has declared March 7 as Black Sunday to express its dissatisfaction over the findings of the report by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCol) into the Easter Sunday attacks.
Black Sunday has been declared as a protest against the lack of justice for all those who died and were affected by the Easter attack, and Catholics are asked to attend the Eucharistic service dressed in Black as a mark of protest.
The declaration was given in all Catholic churches in the country on Sunday (Feb 28) after the Mass.
The congregation, the largest Christian denomination in the country has been asked to pray for the truth behind the attacks to be revealed.
The PCoI on the Easter bombings was appointed by former President Maithripala Sirisena on September 22, 2019, to investigate the series of bombings that killed 267 people and injured at least 500, many of whom were Catholic or Christians of other denominations.
The final report of the commission was handed over to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in late January and was tabled in Parliament last week.
According to sections of the report shared by opposition MP Harin Fernando, the commission has recommended criminal proceedings against former President Maithripala Sirisena and others.
No action has been recommended against former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, though the commission has faulted him for not raising the issue of not being invited to Security Council meetings in Parliament or Cabinet and also for an alleged “lax approach” to Islamic extremism.
However, the commission has failed to find the mastermind behind the attacks. The report was criticized by the members of the opposition parties.
-economynext.com