![]() ![]() These events spun the island’s people, within and afar, into a mix of horror at what was unfolding and a complex sense of trauma at how recognisable that horror is, and at the same time, different. The pre-existing communalist sentiments that had preceded the attacks saw a sharp and more explicit rise. These attacks were followed a few weeks later by anti-Muslim riots, and an elevated state of tension and distrust that persists months later. ![]() The ease with which I moved through the streets was snatched away from every person in the country when churches in three locations around the island-Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa-were attacked by suicide bombers on Easter Sunday, killing and injuring hundreds. ![]() ONE DAY IN EARLY APRIL, after contemplating a shelf of local literature for an essay reflecting on the tenth anniversary of the official end of the Sri Lankan civil war, I walked through a Colombo neighbourhood, in defiance of the exceptional heat, giddy with joy to know again so comfortably the city of my childhood. ![]()
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