Sri Lanka Catholic Church faults government’s bombing probe

By KRISHAN FRANCIS
Associated Press

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church says 25 people charged this week in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks that killed 269 people could be “smaller fish,” and accused the government of still not taking steps to identify the true conspirators. The head of the archdiocese of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, says the president’s office has not answered questions he raised in a letter last month over allegations that officials in state intelligence agencies knew and met with the attackers. He asked Catholics to raise black flags at their homes and on their vehicles as a mark of protest. Two local Muslim groups that had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group were blamed for suicide bomb attacks that targeted three churches and three hotels.