COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s government just imposed a nationwide 'state of emergency' on Tuesday after a sudden spike in violence against minority Muslims in a central town, and amid fears the unrest could spread to other parts of country.
Hundreds of security personnel, including special forces, were deployed on Monday to the district of Kandy, and a curfew was declared there for keeping the peace in the area.
Buddhist mobs made up of the majority Sinhalese ethnic group swept through the town and burned four mosques on Monday including 37 houses, 46 shops and 35 vehicles, the BBC reported.
Local authorities fear retaliation after a young Muslim man’s body was found in a burnt-out building on Tuesday here.
So far, no violence has been reported elsewhere in island.
A tweet from the office of President Sirisena said; the decree would “redress the unsatisfactory security situation prevailing in certain parts of the country.” The country’s security forces “have been suitably empowered to deal with criminal elements in the society and urgently restore normalcy.”
Tensions raised up after the death of a Buddhist man who was told to have been beaten by some Muslims about a week ago.
Sri Lanka as a whole has been divided into the majority Sinhalese, who are overwhelmingly Buddhist, and minority Tamils who are Hindu, Muslim and Christian.
Tension has been on the rise in the South Asian since 2012, said to have been fuelled by hardline Buddhists.
It is the first time in 7 years that Sri Lanka has imposed the measures. The country was under a state of emergency for nearly three decades when the government fought Tamil rebels in the civil war that ended in 2009.
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