Riots in Sri Lanka claim first life

INDEFINITE CURFEW Violence erupted on Monday night, three weeks after extremist bombings killed 258 people

MINUWANGODA, SRI LANKA: Parts of Sri Lanka were under indefinite curfew on Tuesday and social media off limits after a man was killed by sword-wielding rioters in an escalating anti-muslim backlash following the Easter terror attacks.

Violence broke out on Monday, three weeks after bombings killed 258 people, with rampaging mobs carrying out arson attacks and 2,000 people vandalising a mosque, witnesses said.

A nationwide curfew imposed overnight was raised on Tuesday morning except for the NorthWestern Province (NWP) where police said a 45-year-old man was slaughtered in his carpentry shop by a crowd carrying swords.

Police said on Tuesday that 13 people had been arrested including Amith Weerasinghe, a man from Sri Lanka’s majority Buddhist Sinhalese community on bail for his role in similar riots in March last year in the central Kandy district.

Video footage of the unrest in the NWP showed burning shops as mobs armed with sticks and stones roamed the streets attacking Muslim-owned shops.

ENGINEER WAS UNDER INDIAN SURVEILLANCE

COLOMBO/AHMEDABAD: A Sri Lankan software engineer suspected of having provided technical and logistical support to the Easter Sunday suicide bombers was monitored by Indian intelligence agencies three years ago for links with IS suspects, investigators said.

Sources in Sri Lankan investigating agencies believe Aadhil Ameez, a 24-year-old, was the link between two groups that carried out the attacks. He has been arrested and is in police custody, sources said.