Official countdown reduces death toll in Sri Lanka to more than 100 | Chronic

The Sri Lankan authorities on Thursday reduced from 359 to 253 the number of victims left Sunday by the series of attacks against churches and hotels in this country.

The official part of the Ministry of Health corrected the previous broadcast in the hours following the attacks and explained that the failure of the information resulted from the difficulty of the authorities to report the amputated limbs.

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"To date, the number of victims of Sunday's terrorist attack has been reduced to 253, and not to 359 as previously reported," said the director of the communication department of the Ministry of Health, Prasanna Adikari.

The series of attacks perpetrated Sunday almost simultaneously in three luxury hotels and three churches in Colombo and other cities of the country was perpetrated by at least nine kamikazes loaded with powerful explosives.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's defense secretary resigned Thursday in the middle of the scandal of serious security failures that preceded Sunday's series of attacks on churches and hotels.

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Fernando Hemasiri He resigned from his post after it was revealed that the country's security agencies had been informed of the series of attacks in advance.

In his letter of resignation, he badured that, as Secretary of Defense, he had broadcast "systematically intelligence information received about attacks on officials and relevant services" and that he has accomplished his "duty".

"But some key officers and departments have not acted accordingly and, as a result, we have had to deal with this situation, I will resign to facilitate the investigation to the committee responsible"

At the same time, the Sri Lankan authorities have ordered – at the request of the President, Maithripala Sirisena– the deployment of soldiers with special powers of search and detention without a court order throughout the country.

"Hundreds of officers and army soldiers belonging to other categories have been deployed throughout the country as a result of a notification authorizing the powers of research, investigation, and control. arrest or arrest. "according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Defense.

A total of 3,984 military personnel will ensure the safety of churches and other religious buildings, as well as other "vulnerable points"in coordination with the police, as part of an unusual military deployment including roadside checks, vehicle checks and foot patrols.

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Sirisena agreed that the special powers of the army would be "maintain public order" after the simultaneous attacks of Sunday Resurrection against three churches and three luxury hotels, says the statement of the Ministry of Defense quoted by the EFE news agency

Since then, the authorities have found and disabled many explosive devices in different parts of the city that would be linked to these attacks.

The investigation continues, and local authorities began by targeting the local Islamist group National Thowheeth Jamath (NTJ), little known to the radical Islamic people of the radical Islamic State (ISIS).
Unicef ​​reported that 45 children died in the mbadacre.

No attack of this magnitude has occurred in Sri Lanka since the Tamil guerrilla civil war in the government, which lasted 26 years and ended in 2009 and left, according to the UN , more than 40,000 civilians.