Reports of attack on Buddhist temple sparks
anti-Muslim riots in Kandy district
By Michael and
Amantha Perera
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Sri
Lankan security forces clean up a street in Kandy as a 10-day state of
emergency
is declared. Photograph: Xinhua/Barcroft
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At least two people have been killed and
eight others injured in anti-Muslim riots in a popular tourist district in
central Sri Lanka as the government blocked Facebook and other social media
services in an effort to quell the violence.
Reports of an attack on a Buddhist temple in
Abathanna triggered another day of clashes across Kandy district between
members of the country’s mostly Buddhist Sinhalese majority and police.
One man died from a heart attack after his
shop was attacked and another person is thought to have been killed while
trying to attack a mosque, according to police in Katugastota town and sources
at the prime minister’s office said.
Groups of men wielding clubs, some covering
their faces, were seen roaming the streets in at least five areas across Kandy
on Tuesday as the Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena, arrived to meet
police officials and religious leaders.
Police fired teargas as the rioting spread
across the district on Tuesday night. Three officers were wounded in one area,
Menikhinna, and seven people were arrested for breaking an indefinite curfew in
place across Kandy, a police spokesman, Ruwan Gunasekara, said.
Supporters of radical Buddhist nationalist
groups have been blamed for days of arson attacks and vandalism against
Muslim-owned properties in Kandy which have prompted the government to declare
its first state of emergency since the end of the civil war era.
A witness in Abathanna said crowds including
masked men had begun to congregate in the town around 9am on Wednesday morning.
“There was a story that a temple had been
attacked last night, so these groups were going around, stoning and smashing
windows of Muslim shops,” Ruwan Kulasekera said.
Police in riot gear fired bullets in the air
and used teargas to clear the crowd, but there were fears people would return
again after dark, he said.
Facebook and other social media services were
blocked or restricted across Sri Lanka on Wednesday afternoon to prevent the
spread of anti-Muslim posts the government said were helping to fuel the
violence, which it has blamed on hardline Buddhist groups accused of bussing
supporters into the district.
Harsha de Silva, the deputy minister for
national policies and economic affairs, tweeted:
More than 150 homes, shops and vehicles were
estimated to have been destroyed in riots on Monday and Tuesday, which were
sparked at the weekend after a group of Muslim men in Digana town allegedly
killed a Sinhalese man. Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese population makes up about three-quarters
of the country’s total population.
Muslim-owned properties were attacked soon
after the man’s funeral but the violence escalated after two hardline Buddhist
monks with large social media followings and a history of inflammatory rhetoric
arrived in Digana to negotiate the release of accused rioters.
When police refused, dozens of Muslim
properties were set alight and a curfew was imposed in two towns in the
district. On Tuesday morning the body of a 24-year-old man was pulled from one
of the houses set on fire the previous day.
All schools in the district have been closed
and the governments of the United States, Britain and Australia have issued
travel warnings to their citizens.
Analysts said Buddhist nationalist groups had
sharpened their anti-Muslim rhetoric since the end of the civil war in 2009.
Four people were killed and many more injured in riots between Muslims and
Buddhists in June 2015. Several Buddhist extremist leaders were accused of
instigating the violence and are on trial.
Last week groups of people set fire to
Muslim-owned businesses and attacked a mosque in the east of the country after
rumours that a Muslim chef was adding contraceptives to food served to
Sinhalese customers.