Jacqueline Fernandez, who is of Sri Lankan origin, has spoken out against the terrorist attacks that rocked her home country on Easter Sunday. On 21 April, six blasts ripped through churches and luxury hotels across Sri Lanka, in a coordinated attack by suicide bombers, killing at least 290 people and wounding more than 500.
The Race 3 actor shared her thoughts via a series of videos which she posted to Instagram. She mentioned that she needed time to come to terms with the incident before she felt ready to react.
“I needed some time to fully comprehend what I was feeling and to fully comprehend what had happened. It was very difficult for me to understand why so many innocent lives had to be taken many of which were children,” she said.
“So, terrorist attacks like these are unfortunately very unpredictable they also seem to be completely out of our control and there seems to be very little that we can do about them,” she said.
Jacqueline went on to remind her fans that while one may feel helpless in the face of such a senseless act, what one can do is put aside differences to unite and support the people of Sri Lanka. The actor mentioned that she is working with Trail, an organisation which has partnered with the Sri Lankan Red Cross Society to raise funds for victims of the attacks.
“I do believe however that we can do one thing – we can unite and we can support a nation that has suffered tremendously in the past week. I have teamed up with an organisation called Trail. Trail is currently helping all the victims of last week’s tragedy, rebuild our lives. so I would like to take this opportunity to ask all of you to please join me in uniting as one and helping these victims rebuild their lives. Let’s put aside nationality, caste, ethnicity, and religion and come together as one,” she said.
“I'd also like to say let's not give up on humanity, let's not allow fear and anger to dictate how we react and how we feel and what we are thinking. Sri Lanka please stay strong, stay positive and more importantly stay united,” Jacqueline added.
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