Colombo: As Shantha Prasad carried children wounded in Lanka’s deadly attacks into a Colombo hospital, memories of the country’s deadly civil war flooded back. “I carried about eight wounded children yesterday,” he told AFP on Monday, a day after a string of blasts hit hotels and churches, killing nearly 300 people. “There were two girls aged six and eight, the same age as my daughters,” said Prasad, who helps carry stretchers into the hospital’s triage area and wards.
“Their clothes were torn and soaked in blood. It is unbearable to see this kind of violence again.” For many Sri Lankans, Sunday’s attacks against churches and high-end hotels brought back painful memories of a conflict that lasted three decades and killed as many as 100,000 people.
During those years, bomb attacks were a regular occurrence, and left many Lankans on edge in the streets and on public transport. In Colombo, street sweeper Malathi Wickrama said he was now nervous doing his job. “Now we are afraid to even touch black plastic bags with garbage,” he said.
