Sneha Savindi was 12 when she was killed praying at Katuwapitiya Church on Easter Sunday in 2019. She would have been 19 today. Her mother, one of more than 500 left to carry the weight of survival, told NewsFirst that the daily torment has not eased — and that the renewed criminal investigation is her family’s last hope for answers.
“When I opened my eyes at that moment, I could not see the roof, it was collapsing into darkness,” she said. “When I looked ahead, there were human body parts lying all over me. When I turned to the side, I saw the sister and brother who had come with me, but when I looked ahead, I could not even see my daughter. She was buried under a pile of bodies. I had nothing left to look at. There was a large hole near her neck. I still cannot explain what I felt. Even today, having seen all that with my own eyes, I feel like we are living in torment.”
Sneha was one of 108 worshippers killed at Katuwapitiya, the single deadliest of the coordinated suicide bombings on Easter Sunday April 21, 2019. The wider attack claimed 278 lives and left more than 500 permanently disabled across three churches and three hotels in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa, the report noted.
For families like hers, NewsFirst said, “time has not healed the wounds, it has only deepened the longing for answers”. The interview lands as the renewed CID investigation enters what authorities describe as a decisive evidence-based phase. Recent court testimony, NewsFirst quoted an investigating officer telling the magistrate, alleged that “prior to the Easter Sunday attacks, the third suspect, Suresh Salley, had shown Catholic churches to four Muslim extremists through an informant operated by military intelligence in the Negombo area”. The Katuwapitiya suicide bomber has been identified as Mohamed Hasthun.
His wife, Sarah Jasmine, remains “another figure surrounded by mystery”, NewsFirst said. Initial DNA tests suggested she was alive — supported by evidence the CID has presented to court showing she fled to India — but a later third DNA report abruptly concluded she had died, complicating the picture. The CID has separately told court that Salley was involved in obtaining the contested DNA report. Sneha’s mother’s interview comes as protests mount over Salley’s PTA detention, even as Cabinet Spokesman Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa warned the probe would not be derailed by threats. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith has likewise told victims’ families to remain patient, saying the investigation is finally progressing.
