Negombo has seen its worst shape following one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity by an extremist terrorist group on Sunday, April 21.
Mohamed Zahran alias Zahran Hashmi, the leader of the Islamist monotheist terrorist group, the so called National Thowheeth Jama’ath, and his followers, had admittedly exploded the church.
It was carried out in a string of suicide attacks carried out by terrorists on three churches that morning. The suicide bombers set off explosives at St. Anthony’s Shrine in Kochchikade and the Zion Church in Batticaloa in near synchronicity.
Negombo, a peaceful town previously with full of life and energy with people bustling, become a sombre burial ground after the attack. The city is busy preparing the dead for burial. Its road and streets are taken over by funeral marches, hearses, and flower reeds for their dearly departed in the massacre.
Hearses bearing caskets of the bomb victims drive into the St. Sebastian Church through multiple military checkpoints. Military checkpoints were set up throughout Negombo for the protection of the public and the churches.
There are funeral processions on foot carrying coffins of their dearly departed into the church from every corner. Then they are taken to the St. Sebastian Second cemetery to be laid to rest.
The survivors of the dead, their families and neighbours walk into the church with coffins containing the bodies of their children, parents, wives, husbands, sisters and brothers.
The Parish priest, the priests, the brothers and nuns in the area conduct a funeral service every twenty or thirty minutes. There is hardly any break for them for coffins seem to follow them in abundance.
They are laid side by side. There is no single street surrounding the St. Sebastian Church where no one had been dead.
When we met Reverend Parish Father Sri Lal Fonseka on Wednesday afternoon at the church he had just finished performing a funeral service.
We asked him about the general situation in the area following the blast and his experience as a bomb victim. Father Fonseka was wounded in the head in the attack. We could see the wound dressing in his forehead.
“I am exhausted by the situation. I have no words to speak about it. I was at the altar at the time the bomb went off. I was the one who conducted the Easter service,” he said.
Father Sameera Rodrigo has just participated in a funeral service. The service was for a woman and her eight-year-old daughter.
We met her sister Ridma Nawodani after their service at the church. Chandralatha Dassanayaka (40) and her daughter Saweena (8 years) had come to the church on Sunday obeying the God and his will, like everyone else on that day, said Nawodani.
“We still cannot believe why their lives had to be taken just like that,” she said.
There was another coffin besides Chandralatha’s. Her name was May Selvin. There was no family member to claim her body, a Father said.
Anusha Shantha Rajawansa Mudalige (38) has lost his mother (78) and her sister’s eight-months-old son in the explosion.
“I did not go there because I was abroad. I just had to come all the way to witness their deaths. I went abroad to do a job to look after them better,” he said.
I never thought that there could be any suicide bombing in Sri Lanka again.
Colombo Archbishop Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith also conducted a service for the dead at the St. Sebastian Church. The Archbishop arrived at the church premises under heavy security. He had visited the church premises five times since the tragedy to share the grief of the victims. Father Rodrigo said, “We buried 20 bodies yesterday morning (Tuesday) and in the evening six, and today morning (Wednesday) we buried six more and now these two,” he said and added, “There will be many more coffins to follow.”
“The eight-year-old girl was being treated in the Intensive Care Unit. She died last night. There are many severely injured in hospitals. We cannot give the exact number of the dead yet because of this reason,” he said.
“The number of confirmed deaths in St. Sebastian Church bombing is 110’ merely an official figure. It can go up with the number of injured victims at 200,” he said.
We asked why that separate services are held for the bereaved families one by one.
Father Rodrigo said they are conducting separate services because they cannot risk having a larger gathering of people in the church premises due to security concerns.
How will you think that the affected families in Negombo would react to the situation? Will they hold up their nerve?
This is the first time that the Catholics of this country have experienced a tragedy of this magnitude. They did not experience anything like this even during the time of LTTE terrorism. This is the first time that a Catholic church was attacked in the country by a terrorist group.
People are calm. We are not going to criticise anyone over the incident because we cannot directly say that this or that party is responsible for it until the investigations are over.
So we are waiting until concrete proof surfaces in regard to the bombings.
What do you have to say about the church in rubles? How do you like it to be restored?
We celebrate the church’s 100th anniversary in January last year. We spent Rs. 4.5 million for its renovation. Now it has been fully damaged. There will be people and organisations which will volunteer to fund its reconstruction.
But the real problem is not the renovation. We have much to worry about the lost lives. How can we address its impact?
About 25 children belonging to my Sunday school were killed in the explosion.
Do you have any message to the public and the perpetrators of this act?
The victims were all innocent. And they have died while obeying the command of the God.
Our humble request to those behind this massacre is please stop it. If you are thinking of resuming any such acts please think again.
We request all the Catholics and non-Catholics as well to remain calm and maintain your peace at all times.
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