Sri Lanka province under indefinite curfew
MINUWANGODA, Sri Lanka: Parts of Sri Lanka were under indefinite curfew yesterday and social media banned after a man was killed by a sword-wielding mob in an escalating anti-Muslim backlash following the Easter terror attacks.
Violence broke out late Monday, three weeks after Islamist extremist bombings killed 258 people, with mobs carrying out arson attacks including one involving around 2,000 people who vandalised a mosque, witnesses said.
A nationwide curfew imposed overnight was raised yesterday morning except for the NorthWestern Province (NWP) where police said a 45-year-old Muslim man was killed in his carpentry shop by a crowd carrying swords.
Elsewhere in the province north of Colombo rampaging mobs, who outnumbered police and security forces, set fire to Muslim-owned shops, vandalised homes and smashed windows, furniture and fittings inside several mosques.
In the adjoining Gampaha district, men on motorbikes led arson attacks in the town of Minuwangoda, 45 kilometres north of Colombo, local residents told AFP.
“It was the men on motorbikes who started the violence. They were from out of town,” an owner of an electronic goods store told AFP by telephone.
“After they started smashing Muslim shops and throwing petrol bombs, the locals joined in.”
He said police and security forces appeared to be overwhelmed and that by the time troops fired in the air to disperse the mobs it was too late for many of the shops targeted.
A pasta factory owned by a Muslim businessman was destroyed after unidentified attackers threw burning tyres into the facility, reducing it to ashes.
A mosque in Minuwangoda was also stoned.
In the NWP, attackers systematically targeted mosques for two days, local clerics told AFP. In the town of Kinyama, two mosques were smashed as the outnumbered armed police and troops stood by.
“About 2,000 people surrounded our mosque and smashed everything inside, even the bathroom fittings,” cleric MIM Siddeeque told AFP by telephone from the curfew-bound town of Bingiriya.
Video footage of the unrest showed burning shops as mobs armed with sticks and stones roamed on the streets attacking Muslim-owned shops.
Police said the curfew in the NWP would continue until further notice.
“Security forces are assisting police who have been ordered to use maximum force to contain the violence,” police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.
Police said they fired in the air and used tear gas at several places to deter people attempting to attack mosques. — AFP
It was the men on motorbikes who started the violence. They were from out of town. Store owner