Rioting as social media blocked in Sri Lanka

Anti-muslim rioting flared again in the hills of central Sri Lanka despite a state of emergency, as the government ordered popular social media networks blocked to stop the violence from spreading.

The police also ordered a curfew across much of the region for a third day, trying to calm the situation.

In the small town of Katugastota, Ikram Mohamed, a Muslim, stood outside the wreckage of the textile shop where he worked after Sinhalese Buddhist mobs set it on fire. He and the owner had closed the shop yesterday when police announced the curfew. They returned to find it destroyed, and clothing and dressmaker dummies smoking in the ruins.

Muslims own many of the small businesses in Sri Lanka, a fact that many believe has helped make them targets as Buddhistmuslim relations have worsened in recent years amid the rise of hard-line Buddhist groups, which accuse Muslims of forcing people to convert and destroying sacred Buddhist sites.