Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena will declare a nationwide emergency from midnight on Monday following the Easter Sunday bomb blasts that killed 290 people, the president's office said.
A series of blasts hit three churches―St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa at around 8.45 am as Easter Sunday mass were in progress.
Three luxury five-star hotels―the Shangrila, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury―were also hit.
Over 500 people were wounded in the blasts―the worst attack in the island nation's history.
“The government has decided to gazette the clauses related to prevention of terrorism to emergency regulation and gazette it by midnight,” the president's office said in a statement.
It said the measure would be confined to dealing with terrorism and would not impinge on freedom of expression.
The government also ordered a new night-time curfew following the blasts. A curfew, which was placed immediately after the eighth explosion, was lifted early on Monday morning. However, the government has decided to reimpose the curfew.
“The police curfew which was lifted at 6 this morning is to be reimposed at 8 pm Monday until 4 am Tuesday,” the Government Information Department said.
