“People were running helter-skelter. Their faces were filled with panic. Screams of shock was heard from every corner. Heavy crowd of uniformed personnel were found on every stretch,” this is how Devan Ekambaram, Tamil lyricist and singer from India, who was present when the Easter Day bombings took place in Sri Lanka on April 21.
People hold a candle light vigil for the victims of Sri Lankan Easter Day bombings in Chennai on Tuesday
Chennai:
“We were on the way to Colombo from Jaffna when we got the news. We started rushing to the airport as the government had announced the imposition of curfew from 6 pm on April 21 to 6 am the next day. There were army and security personnel at every few kilometers throughout the route to the airport. Once at the airport, it took us nearly two hours for us to reach the departure gates as intense frisking was going on,” recalled Devan.
While he was having his dinner at the airport lounge, the singer said he was shocked to learn that a bomb was found and defused close to the airport. A “homemade” pipe bomb was found on a road leading to the main terminal of the airport, according to authorities.
“Some of the co-passengers on the line for security check at the airport too couldn’t come out of the shock as many of them had narrowly escaped the explosions at one location or another. A Sri Lankan friend of mine had lost his wife and mother-in-law in one of the blasts,” he shares.
“Sri Lanka has been slowly returning to normal situation only in recent years. Somehow, we got back home safe. But it will take some more days or weeks for normalcy to return to the island nation country,” feels Devan.
It was on April 12 that Devan had gone to Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka for a concert. By the time, Devan was proceeding to airport for his journey to Chennai after finishing his programmes on April 21, he heard the news of serial blasts, which claimed over 300 lives, that struck Colombo, the capital city of the Island Nation.
“We were on the way to Colombo from Jaffna when we got the news. We started rushing to the airport as the government had announced the imposition of curfew from 6 pm on April 21 to 6 am the next day. There were army and security personnel at every few kilometers throughout the route to the airport. Once at the airport, it took us nearly two hours for us to reach the departure gates as intense frisking was going on,” recalled Devan.
While he was having his dinner at the airport lounge, the singer said he was shocked to learn that a bomb was found and defused close to the airport. A “homemade” pipe bomb was found on a road leading to the main terminal of the airport, according to authorities.
“Some of the co-passengers on the line for security check at the airport too couldn’t come out of the shock as many of them had narrowly escaped the explosions at one location or another. A Sri Lankan friend of mine had lost his wife and mother-in-law in one of the blasts,” he shares.
“Sri Lanka has been slowly returning to normal situation only in recent years. Somehow, we got back home safe. But it will take some more days or weeks for normalcy to return to the island nation country,” feels Devan.