Buddhist mobs attack Sri Lanka’s Muslims despite state of emergency

Police imposed an indefinite curfew in the central highlands district of Kandy where the violence has been

centered since Sunday night following the death of a Buddhist youth in an altercation with a group of Muslims.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said there had been “several incidents” throughout Tuesday night in the

Kandy area, popular with tourists for its tea gardens.

“The police arrested seven people. Three police officers were injured from the incidents.

“There was no information about how many civilians had been injured in the attacks,” Gunasekara told Reuters.

Tension has been growing between the two communities in Sri Lanka over the past year, with some hardline

Buddhist groups accusing Muslims of forcing people to convert to Islam and vandalizing Buddhist archaeological sites.

Some Buddhist nationalists have also protested against the presence in Sri Lanka of Muslim Rohingya asylum- seekers from mostly Buddhist Myanmar, where Buddhist nationalism has also been on the rise.

President Maithripala Sirisena imposed a state of emergency for seven days on Tuesday, aiming to stop the violence from spreading to other parts of the country still healing from a 26-year civil war against Tamil separatists that ended in 2009.

A government minister said the latest violence in Kandy had been whipped up by people from outside the area.

“There is an organised conspiracy behind these incidents,” Sarath Amunugama, a senior minister told reporters in Colombo.

He said the government will implement the rule of law impartially in the overwhelmingly Buddhist nation in which Muslims make up nine per cent of the 21 million population, the smallest minority after ethnic Tamils, most of whom are Hindus.

Police ordered Dialog Axiata, the country’s largest mobile phone service provider, to restrain internet connections in the Kandy district after postings appeared on Facebook threatening attacks on Muslims. (Reuters/NAN)