Indefinite curfew imposed in North Western Province where Muslim man was killed on Monday.3 hours ago
The Sri Lankan government has ordered nationwide curfew for a second night after anti-Muslim riots in the wake of the Easter bombings.
The curfew was earlier relaxed on Tuesday in all areas except the North Western Province (NWP) where a Muslim man was killed by a mob on Monday, police said, in a violent backlash against last month’s bombings.
The 45-year-old died of injuries sustained when a crowd stormed his carpentry workshop in the Puttalam district in the NWP and slashed him, official sources said.
Police chief Chandana Wickramaratne warned of stern action against rioters, and said that constables have been issued orders to use “maximum force”.
Elsewhere in the province, mobs torched dozens of Muslim-owned shops, vandalised homes and mosques in a day of rioting.
“The curfew in the NWP will be continued until further notice,” police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.
Al Jazeera’s Minelle Fernandez, reporting from Colombo, said “an uneasy calm prevailed in the northwestern province”.
“There are complaints that some of the police and military stood helpless daunted by the sheer scale of the mobs that were going around burning properties. That is something of concern here,” she said.
Fernandez said that there are reports of 11 individuals arrested for their alleged involvement in the violence.
On Monday, police imposed the island-wide curfew from 9pm local time (15:30 GMT) to 4am, according to a police statement.
| Sri Lankan Muslims fear for safety after Easter Sunday attacks (2:42) |
Curfews were previously limited to specific areas where attacks had taken place, including Puttalam, Kurunegala and Gamphala districts near Colombo.
In an address to the nation on Monday night, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said a countrywide curfew was declared to prevent unidentified groups orchestrating communal violence.
Wickremesinghe said the unrest would hinder investigations into the April 21 attacks that targeted three churches and three luxury hotels, killing 257 people and wounding nearly 500.
Sri Lanka also temporarily banned some social media networks and messaging apps, including Facebook and WhatsApp, after a posting sparked anti-Muslim riots across several towns.
A Facebook post has sparked anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka, with Christian and Muslim community leaders calling for calm.9669:49 PM – May 13, 2019947 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacy
The attacks came during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.
Residents in NWP said crowds attacked mosques and damaged Muslim-owned businesses for a second day on Monday.
“There are hundreds of rioters, police and army are just watching. They have burnt our mosques and smashed many shops owned by Muslims,” a resident, who asked not to be identified, told the Reuters news agency. “When we try to come out of our house, police tell us to stay inside.”
Glass was strewn across the Abrar mosque in the town of Kiniyama that was attacked overnight. All the windows and doors of the soft-pink building were smashed and copies of the Quran were thrown onto the floor.
‘Several shops attacked’
“Over the last 24 hours there were localised police curfews to contain tensions between Christians and Muslims in these particular areas,” Al Jazeera’s Fernandez said. “The authorities are trying very hard to clamp down on this.”
The latest wave of unrest started when a mob targeted Muslim-owned shops in the town of Chilaw, 70 kilometres north of Colombo, on Sunday in anger at a Facebook post by a shopkeeper.
“Don’t laugh more, 1 day u will cry,” was posted as a comment on Facebook by a Muslim shopkeeper, and local Christians took it to be a warning of an impending attack.
Mobs smashed the man’s shop and vandalised a nearby mosque prompting security forces to fire in the air to disperse the crowd.
Authorities said they arrested the author of the post.
Muslims make up around 10 percent of Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka’s 21 million population and Christians about 7.6 percent.
‘Worrying trend’
Rights group Amnesty International said there was “a worrying trend of attacks against the Muslim community coming out of Sri Lanka” following the Easter Sunday bombings.
The country’s main body of Islamic scholars, the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU), said there was increased suspicion of Muslims.
“We call upon the members of the Muslim communities to be more patient and guard your actions and avoid unnecessary postings or hosting on social media,” the ACJU said.
On Twitter, Sri Lanka’s leading mobile phone operator Dialog said it had also received instructions to block Viber, IMO, Snapchat, Instagram and Youtube until further notice.
The latest unrest came as Catholic churches resumed their public Sunday masses for the first time since the bombings.
Sri Lanka has been under a state of emergency since the attacks. Security forces and police have been given sweeping powers to arrest and detain suspects for long periods.
Aljazeera
