In view of the prevailing security situation in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of terror attacks on 21 April 2019, Indian nationals intending to travel to Sri Lanka are advised not to undertake non-essential travel.

In case of those undertaking essential/emergency travels, they can contact the High Commission of India in Colombo or the Assistant High Commission in Kandy / Consulates in Hambantota and Jaffna in case of requirement of any assistance. The helpline numbers of the Indian High Commission are available on the Mission’s website.

The government  of Sri Lanka has beefed up the security in the country. A nation-wide emergency including night time curfew is in place at present which may also affect travel within Sri Lanka.

On Saturday, 15 people including six children have died during a raid on their home by Sri Lankan security forces in which three cornered suicide bombers detonated their explosives and others traded gunfire with police.

Police and soldiers fought a gun battle with occupants of the house for more than an hour on Friday night, a military spokesman said, during which three explosions rocked the property near the eastern town of Kalmunai, about 230 miles (370km) from the capital, Colombo.

A search operation on Saturday morning found the bodies of three men, three women and six children inside the house, police said. “Three other men, also believed to be suicide bombers, were found dead outside the house,” police said, adding that they had been shot.

Footage of the aftermath circulated online on Saturday showed a house strewn with rubble and bodies being picked over by teams of police in khaki uniforms.

Sri Lanka’s prime minister has said authorities are now focused on rounding up supporters and sympathisers of the terrorist cell that carried out the string of bombings last Sunday that killed at least 253 people and injured hundreds more.

About 70 were estimated to be at large, “some capable of exploding themselves,” Ranil Wickremesinghe said. Investigators are unsure why they have not done so yet, speculating that further attacks may have been foiled by the heavy police response to the first bombs last Sunday, or that the cell may have expected more people to come forward to sacrifice themselves.

Another raid about nine miles away in Sammanthurai unearthed an Islamic State flag and uniforms similar to those worn by the suspected bombers in a video they made pledging allegiance to the group’s leader.