The Sri Lanka bombing spree that rocked the island on 21 April has raised numerous questions. Speaking to Sputnik, analysts discussed what message the bloodbath had sent to the world and who could benefit from the attacks.
The bombing of three Christian churches and hotels in Sri Lanka during the Easter holiday have caught many by surprise. Since the end of the 1983-2009 civil war, the nation has not been subjected to religious persecution or militant Islamist violence.
Philip Giraldi, a former counter-terrorism specialist and CIA military intelligence officer, agreed that the sudden outbreak of religious violence against the Christian minority of the small island nation had prompted a lot of confusion.
According to the country’s 2011 census, 70 percent of Sri Lankans are Theravada Buddhists and 13 percent are Hindus, while only 9.7 and 7.4 percent are Muslims and Christians, respectively.
«It did not make sense unless the objective was to embarrass the Sri Lankan government for its failure to provide security», Giraldi told Sputnik.
Adam Garrie, a geopolitical analyst and director of Eurasia Future, believes that besides the religious violence motive, some forces could have sought to drag the nation back into internal violence.
«The fact that Sri Lanka’s Muslim population is very small and has long lived in harmony with the Buddhist majority makes it clear that the material gain that terrorists, for example, in Syria sought to attain, is simply not a credible motive for the attackers in Sri Lanka,» the analyst noted.
The LTTE was founded in May 1976 by Velupillai Prabhakaran and sought to create an independent state of Tamil Eelam in the north and east of Sri Lanka.
