Muslim women in Sri Lanka banned from wearing veils in emergency law after Easter bomb attacks

Sri Lanka has banned Muslim women from wearing face veils after the Easter suicide bomb attacks that claimed the lives of at least 250 people.

President Maithripala Sirisena introduced an emergency law to impose the restriction on face coverings from Monday.

Although the niqab and the burka, which are worn by Muslim women, were not specifically named in the ban, any face garment which “hinders identification” is no longer permitted to ensure national security, the president’s office said.

The decision came after the government had proposed laws on face veils at a recent meeting.

The country is still on high alert just over a week after the Islamic State-claimed attacks on churches and hotels which killed more than 250 people and left hundreds more injured.

Dozens of suspects have been arrested but officials have warned that more militants remained on the loose with explosives.

On Sunday, Sri Lanka's Catholics celebrated Mass in their homes by a televised broadcast as churches across the island nation shut over fears of further attacks.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, delivered a homily before members of the clergy and the country's leaders in a small chapel at his Colombo residence - an extraordinary measure underlining the fear still gripping this nation of 21 million people.

"This is a time our hearts are tested by the great destruction that took place last Sunday," Mr Ranjith said.

"This is a time questions such as, does God truly love us, does He have compassion towards us, can arise in human hearts."

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In a rare show of unity, President Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa attended the Mass.

Their political rivalry and government dysfunction are blamed for a failure act upon near-specific information received from foreign intelligence agencies that preceded the bombings that targeted three churches and three luxury hotels.

All Sri Lankan churches were asked to ring bells on Sunday while the lamp lighting takes place.

In the eastern district of Ampara on Sunday, where a gunfight and explosions left 15 people dead the previous day, soldiers guarded St Mary Magdalen's Church, where a sign on the gate said the church and the school would be closed until May 6.

A nearby mosque also had soldiers stationed outside.

The Islamic State group, meanwhile, claimed three of the militants who blew themselves up during a police raid in Ampara that was linked to the Easter bombings.

In a statement carried by the extremists' Aamaq news agency, IS identified the bombers by their noms du guerre as Abu Hammad, Abu Sufyan and Abu al-Qa'qa.

It said they opened fire with automatic weapons and "after exhausting their ammunition, detonated… their explosive belts".

Sri Lanka's military said the gunfight on Friday night near the town of Sammanthurai left 15 dead, including six children, when militants opened fire and set off explosives in suicide bombings as security forces closed in on their safe house.

At the main police station in Ampara, an outdoor stage now holds what police recovered after the firefight.

The IS-aligned militants had created a bombmaking factory at the home, complete with laboratory-style beakers and thick rubber gloves.

Bags of fertiliser, gunpowder and small ball bearings filled boxes. Police found gallons of acids, used to make the fire of the blast more lethal.

Police also recovered religious tracts in Tamil glorifying suicide bombings, saying they granted the attacker direct entrance to heaven.

The government, crippled from a long political crisis between the president and prime minister last year, promised swift action to capture militants still at large.

Mr Sirisena said about 140 people had been identified as having links to IS.

Police confirmed that the leader of the local militant group blamed for the attack, Mohamed Zahran, died in the suicide bombing at the Shangri-La Hotel.

Zahran appeared in an IS video claiming responsibility for the coordinated assault, and authorities in both Sri Lanka and Australia confirmed links between IS and the attack.