Colombo 5-star hotel asked to provide guest list

Sri Lanka's Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) looking into the April 21 Easter Sunday attacks, has asked the Taj Samudra Colombo five-star hotel to provide a guest list of that day, as well as the ones who ate breakfast, the media reported on Thursday.

This was announced by Chairman Ananda Kumarasiri during the proceedings of the PSC on Wednesday evening, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported.

Kumarasiri said obtaining this list could help shed some light on why the Taj Samudra was spared by the terrorists who launched these attacks.

The three five-star hotels that were bombed were the Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand, Kingsbury and Tropical Inn.

Bombings also took place during the Easter Sunday services at churches in Negombo, Batticaloa and Colombo along with smaller explosions at a housing complex in Dematagoda and a guest house in Dehiwala.

More than 250 people were killed and some 500 others injured in one of the most brutal attacks in the island nation since the civil war ended in 2009.