Colombo: Sri Lankan police on Sunday imposed curfew with immediate effect in the country’s western coastal town of Chilaw after a mosque and few shops owned by Muslims were attacked by a mob, authorities said.
The curfew has been imposed till 6 am Monday as a precaution, the police said. Additional troops have been deployed in the city to bring the situation under control, they said.
Tension was brewing since Saturday between the Catholics and Muslims in the Christian dominated town. This is a fallout from the Easter Sunday attacks in which over 250 people were killed.
A Catholic woman claimed that she was threatened inside a Muslim-owned shop. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo, cancelled all masses since the Easter Sunday until the security situation could improve. It was just this morning that churches resumed their normal Sunday services since the attack.
Early this month, several people were injured in clashes between Muslims and Christians in Negombo, a majority Christian town where St. Sebastian’s Church was targeted during the Easter attacks. After clashes in Negombo, Cardinal Ranjith appealed to Christians and other communities to show restraint.
In his address to the nation after the Easter Sunday blasts, President Maithripala Sirisena called on the public to refrain from looking at the Muslim community with a suspicious eye following the attacks.
“It was only a small group which had engaged in such acts of terror,” he added.
Sri Lanka has a population of 21 million which is a patchwork of ethnicities and religions, dominated by the Sinhalese Buddhist majority. Muslims account for 10 per cent of the population and are the second-largest minority after Hindus. Around seven per cent of Sri Lankans are Christians.
Islamic preacher held for inciting extremism
A 47-year-old preacher has been arrested at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in the Sri Lankan capital on charges of using social media platform to air extremist views, the police said.
The preacher was arrested at the airport on Saturday by the Criminal Investigation Department on his arrival from Mecca after performing Haj.
According to the police, the preacher had been organising pilgrimage tours to Mecca. He was remanded till May 14 after being produced in the Negombo Magistrate’s Court, the Daily Mirror reported.
Sri Lankan authorities had temporarily banned all forms of social media after the Easter Sunday bombings because it was being used to circulate fake news and create enmity between communities.
The April 21 killings claimed over 250 lives and were blamed on local Islamist group National Thowheed Jamath, which is believed to have links with the Islamic State (IS). (Agencies)
