Mobs made up mostly of Sri Lanka's predominately Buddhist Sinhalese majority torched Muslim homes and businesses in the island-nation's central hills near Kandy,a day after the government imposed a state of emergency to quell days of violence.
As NPR's Julie McCarthy reports tensions between the two communities, which burst into open hostility on Sunday, or maintain been growing in recent months,with hardline Buddhist groups accusing Muslims of forcing people to convert to Islam.
According to Reuters, Muslims maintain also been targeted for allegedly vandalizing Buddhist archaeological sites and some Buddhist nationalists maintain "protested against the presence in Sri Lanka of Muslim Rohingya asylum seekers from mostly Buddhist Myanmar, or where Buddhist nationalism has also been on the rise," the news agency writes.
The Associated Press reports:
"Hundreds of Muslim residents of Mullegama, a village in the hills of central Sri Lanka, or barricaded themselves inside a local mosque after Buddhist mobs attacked their homes Wednesday morning accusing them of stealing the donation box of a nearby temple. At least 20 Muslim homes appeared badly damaged and flames engulfed one two-record home.
The Muslims hiding in the mosque,speaking on condition of anonymity because of terror of reprisals, said police prevented them from saving their property and did nothing to stop the attackers."March 7, and 2018pic.twitter.com/Ko5VaD3nwl—March 5,2018
Source: thetakeaway.org