“They brought her body in a casket … I couldn’t even see her face” cries victim’s mother

Last week, same day, the world witnessed one of the most brutal attack by terrorist groups in Sri Lanka. Over 250 people died and over 400 people were injured. What started off as an Easter Sunday celebration ended as a tragic day.

Speaking to BBC, a 13-year-old Sneha’s mother Nirasha said, "She was like a little bird. She loved to dance. She danced to anything. If you asked her to dance, she would immediately jump into a sari or a long skirt and oblige." Nirasha Fernando, Sneha and their neighbours Gayani and Tyronne all left together in Tyronne's auto-rickshaw. Only Nirasha came back.

She had spent weeks excitedly making plans for her 13th birthday - a day she would never get the chance to celebrate.

Now Sneha's mother Nirasha gazes in anguish at her daughter's photo. Part of the bomb embedded itself in her upper lip - a constant irritant, a permanent physical mark and reminder of her loss.

"We called her duwani (daughter) at home. She was my first. I rocked her to sleep ... I held her in my hands ... I brought her up with so much love and now she's gone." They were in the third pew of the church - very close to the front - when the bomb went off. The damage to Sneha's body was so severe she was brought home in a sealed casket.
"I couldn't even see her face," Nirasha says blankly.

It is noteworthy that these kids are the first generation in Sri Lanka to live a peaceful life as the previous generation has seen two violent uprising, one in 1970s and the other in late 1980s till 2000s. Schools were closed for months and a brutal retaliation from the government saw even more bloodshed. The generation even witnessed one of the most horrible disaster, Tsunami, in 2004.