Curfew in Galle amid reports Muslim homes, businesses attacked by Sinhala mobs

by Sivakami
Nov 17, 2017

Sri Lankan police instituted a curfew in Galle on Friday night, amid reports that a number of Muslim homes and businesses in Gintota were attacked by Sinhala mobs. 

Police spokesperson, Ruwan Gunasekara was quoted by Ada Derana as saying a curfew was imposed until 9am on Saturday in Kurunduwatta, Maha Hapugala, Welipitimodara, Ukwatta, Ginthota and Piyandigama Grama Sevaka Divisions. 

According to the paper, riot police and Special Task Force officers were deployed to the area to bring the mobs under control. 

Sri Lanka's Home Affairs minister Vajira Abeywardena attempted to downplay the reports, stating that it was a "minor" incident that was being portrayed as a racist incident. 

Since the end of the armed conflict in 2009, Muslim communities across the Sinhala south have been targetted on a number of occasions by mobs, with homes and businesses being burnt.

Add new comment

About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button