Sri Lanka under fresh curfew, social media ban as riots spread

INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED TO BLOCK ACCESS TO FACEBOOK, WHATSAPP, YOUTUBE AND INSTAGRAM.

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka imposed a nationwide night curfew on Monday, after anti-muslim riots spread to three districts just north of the capital in a violent new backlash against the Easter suicide bombings.

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 North-western Province these groups created trouble, damaged property,” he said in a televised address to the nation.

“Police and security forces have 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.

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.

Police said there were sporadic incidents of mobs pelting stones and torching shops, motorcycles and cars owned by Muslims. In the town of Hettipola, at least three shops were torched.

In the town of Minuwangoda, just north of Colombo, a Muslimowned hotel and a mosque were attacked by stone-pelting mobs armed with sticks. Earlier, authorities banned Facebook, Whatsapp and other social media platforms after riots.