Sri Lanka reduces toll to 253, Defence Secretary quits
Sri Lanka on Thursday revised down the toll in Easter Sunday bloodbath to “about 253” even as Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando resigned accepting responsibility for the attack and security forces continued a search for accomplices of the suicide bombers.
The government also banned the use of all drones and unmanned aircraft within the Sri Lankan airspace with effect from Thursday and also kept its new visa-on-arrival programme, which was to be implemented from May 1, on hold due to the security situation in the island nation.
Bringing down the toll by over 100 from 359 to “about 253”, the Health Ministry blamed “a calculation error” for the higher figure, the BBC reported.
