ONE KILLED IN ANTI-MUSLIM RIOTS
Shopowner slashed to death despite curfew in Sri Lanka
MOBS slashed to death a Sri Lankan Muslim man despite a nationwide curfew imposed on Monday night after anti-Muslim riots spread to three districts north of the capital in a violent backlash against Easter suicide bombings.
The 45-year-old man died shortly after admission to a hospital in Puttalam district during the rioting which began on Sunday in the area, a police official said.
“Mobs had attacked him with sharp weapons at his carpentry workshop,” the official said. “This
is the first death from the riots.”
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the curfew was declared to prevent unidentified groups destabilising the country by orchestrating communal violence.
“At several places in the NorthWestern Province these groups created trouble, damaged property,” Wickremesinghe said in a televised address to the nation.
“Police and security forces had contained the situation, but these (unidentified) groups are still trying to create trouble.”
Wickremesinghe said the unrest would hinder investigations into the April 21 attacks that targeted three Christian churches and three luxury hotels, killing 258 people and wounding nearly 500.
In a separate TV address, Police Chief Chandana Wickramaratne warned police will take stern action against rioters, and constables had been issued orders to use maximum force.
Residents in the North-Western Province were ordered to stay indoors after Christian-led mobs torched dozens of Muslim-owned shops, vehicles and mosques on Sunday and Monday.
Later the curfew was extended to cover the entire country of 21 million people.
Police said there were sporadic incidents of mobs throwing stones and torching shops, motorcycles and cars owned by Muslims. In the town of Hettipola, three shops were torched.
In the town of Minuwangoda north of here, a Muslim-owned hotel and a mosque were attacked by stone-hurling mobs armed with sticks.
On Monday, the authorities banned Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media.
Platforms were similarly blocked after the Easter attacks.
“I appeal to all citizens to remain calm and not be swayed by false information,” Wickremesinghe said on Twitter, which was not targeted in the social media blockade.
A state of emergency has been in place since the bombings — which the Islamic State group claims to have helped — and security forces had been given sweeping powers to detain suspects.
The latest wave of unrest started when a mob targeted Muslimowned shops in the town of Chilaw, 80km north of here on Sunday in anger at a Facebook post by a shopkeeper.
“Don’t laugh more, 1 day u will cry,” he wrote, which local Christians took to be a warning of an impending attack.
The group smashed the man’s shop and vandalised a nearby mosque prompting security forces to fire in the air to disperse the crowd, but the violence spread.
The main body of Islamic clerics, the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama, said there was increased suspicion of Muslims after the Easter Sunday killings.
“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.
The latest unrest came as Catholic churches resumed public Sunday masses for the first time since the bombings.