Terror Returns

Terror has returned to Sri Lanka after a decade, the deeply divided government caught with its guard down, the people left shell-shocked and asking why. The death toll in the serial blasts that pulverized the island nation on Black Easter Sunday has already climbed to 290, over 500 have been injured, a number of them battling for life. There was an alert last week that a homegrown jihadist outfit called Towheeth Jamaath may carry out bomb attacks on the Indian High Commission and some churches, but the investigators as of now have not revealed anything definitive. The level of coordination, use of suicide bombers, intensity and sophistication of explosives — all point to involvement of foreign groups like the ISIS. The attacks have revived nightmares of LTTE insurgency, its car bomb attack in the heart of Colombo in 1996 that claimed 91 lives, the final destruction of the Tamil rebels in May 2009 and revelation of horrific human rights abuses by the Sri Lankan army. While the Sinhala-Tamil ethnic strife may have visibly abated, communal tensions have been rising between the majority Buddhists who make up 70% of the population, the Muslims (10%) and the Christians (7%), while the Hindus (nearly 13%) are also a sizeable group. Across the world, attacks on a mosque in New Zealand and a synagogue in Pittsburgh in US in less than a year show how religious zealots are raising their heads. ‘Non-violent and tolerant’ India seems to have caught the contagion — according to Open Doors, a global mission keeping watch on persecuted Christians, India has risen to 10th position in its 2019 World Watch List following a string of attacks on churches and Christians. When ‘The Other’ is demonised, can hatred and terror be far behind? Beware, else this is the price we all must pay.