Sri Lankan Muslim ministers rejoin government after Easter Sunday bombings
Colombo: Four Sri Lankan Muslim ministers, who resigned following the Easter Sunday bombings that killed 258 people, have rejoined the government after investigators found no link in their alleged involvement with a local islamist extremist group.
Two senior Muslim leaders Rauff Hakeem - the leader of the main Muslim party Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and Rishad Badiyudeen, the leader of the All Ceylon Makkal Congress - were sworn in by President Maithripala Sirisena last night.
Along with them, two more Muslims, a state minister and a deputy minister rejoined the government.
The ministers were among nine government legislators, several of them cabinet ministers, who resigned in early June after a Buddhist lawmaker demanded their sacking and accused them of terror links.
Badiyudeen was targeted by the Opposition which demanded his resignation over his alleged close links to local islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jammath (NTJ).
Nine suicide bombers attacked three churches and as many luxury hotels on April 21 in one of Sri Lanka's worst terror attacks, killing 25 people and injuring hundreds others.
The ISIS terror group claimed the attacks, but the government blamed the NTJ for the bombings. "We want the government response to the issues faced by the Muslim community," said Hakeem on his return.
The Opposition said they again would move a no trust motion against Badiyudeen.
"We will present the no confidence motion against Badiyudeen," said Shehan Semasinghe, an opposition legislator.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said since police investigations against the Muslim ministers over their alleged links to NTJ had drawn a blank, they were free to re-join the government.
The 9 per cent Muslim minority votes will be crucial for the two national parties in this election year. The next presidential election must be held before December 8 this year.
The minorities Tamils and Muslims in large numbers sided with the current government in 2015, helping it defeat former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and bring an end to his 10-year rule.
In the wake of the bombings, the majority Sinhala community mobs attacked Muslim-owned properties in towns north of the capital killing one Muslim man and leaving hundreds of homes, shops and mosques vandalised.
The Muslim ministers quit their posts after two Muslim provincial governors resigned following protests by thousands of people, including majority Buddhist community monks, in the pilgrim city of Kandy.
They demanded their sacking for allegedly supporting Islamist extremists responsible for the Easter suicide bombings.
Muslims account for about 10 per cent of the population and are the second-largest minority after Hindus. Around seven per cent of Sri Lankans are Christians.
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India harbouring big and bold dreams in space sector: Shubhanshu Shukla
Kolkata (PTI): Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, the first Indian astronaut to go to the International Space Station, on Wednesday said the country is harbouring “big and bold dreams”, foraying into human spaceflight after a hiatus of 41 years.
Shukla was the first Indian to visit the International Space Station as part of the Axiom-4 mission. He returned to India from the US on August 17, 2025, after the 18-day mission.
The space is a “great place to be”, marked by deep peace and an “amazing view” that becomes more captivating with time, he said, interacting with schoolchildren at an event organised by the Indian Centre for Space Physics here.
“The longer you stay, the more you enjoy it,” Shukla said, adding on a lighter note that he “actually kind of did not want to come back”.
Shukla said the hands-on experience in space was very different from what he had learnt during training.
He said the future of India’s space science was “very bright”, with the country harbouring “very big and bold dreams”.
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Shukla described his ISS flight, undertaken with support from the US, as a crucial “stepping stone” towards realising India’s ‘Vision Gaganyaan’.
“The experience gained is a national asset. It is already being used by internal committees and design teams to ensure ongoing missions are on the right track,” he said.
Shukla said the country’s space ambitions include the Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme, the Bharatiya Station (India’s own space station), and eventually a human landing on the Moon.
While the Moon mission is targeted for 2040, he said these projects are already in the pipeline, and the field will evolve at a “very rapid pace” over the next 10-20 years.
He told the students that though these targets are challenging, they are “achievable by people like you”, urging them to take ownership of India’s aspirations.
The sector will generate “a lot of employment opportunities” as India expands its human spaceflight capabilities, he noted.
Echoing the iconic words of India’s first astronaut Rakesh Sharma, Shukla said that from orbit, “India is still the best in the world”.
Shukla also asserted that the achievement was not his alone, but that of the entire country.
“The youth of India are extremely talented. They must stay focused, remain curious and work hard. It is their responsibility to help build a developed India by 2047,” he said.
Highlighting a shift from Sharma’s era, Shukla said India is now developing a full-fledged astronaut ecosystem.
With Gaganyaan and future missions, children in India will be able to not only dream of becoming astronauts, but also achieving it within the country, he said.
“Space missions help a village kid believe he can go to space someday. When you send one person to space, you lift million hopes. That is why such programmes must continue... The sky is not the limit,” Shukla said.
“Scientists must prepare for systems that will last 20-30 years, while ensuring they can integrate technologies that will emerge a decade from now,” he said.
Shukla added that he looked forward to more space missions, and was keen to undertake a space walk, which will require him to "train for another two years".
