Lanka deploys troops to prevent communal riots

Sri Lanka deployed troops and ordered a night-time curfew in a southern town to end violent clashes between two ethnic communities, the government said yesterday.Law and Order Minister Sagala Ratnayaka said the situation in Gintota in Galle province was under control, two days after a brawl degenerated into street violence between two groups - one Sinhalese, the country’s mainly Buddhist majority, the other from the Muslim minority.“Additional police battalions, the police Special Task Force, the anti-riot squad and the military were called in last night to bring the situation under control,” the minister said in a statement.Six people injured in the clashes were admitted to hospital in Galle city, 115km (72 miles) south of the capital Colombo, according to local police who arrested 19 people.It was not clear what triggered the clashes, with accounts varying between a road accident and a land dispute.The government relaxed the curfew yesterday morning with a warning that police would arrest any instigators.Ratnayaka blamed local politicians for attempting to exploit the unrest.“Some political groups are now on a desperate mission to turn this minor brawl into a Sinhala-Muslim clash. I urge the public not to be misled by their false propaganda,” the minister said.Muslims account for about 10% of Sri Lanka’s 21m people and are the second largest minority group after Tamils.Sinhalese make up over 70% of the population.President Maithripala Sirisena’s government, after came under fire from rights groups and diplomats for not doing enough to crack down on hardline Buddhist groups, acted against anti-Muslim attackers in June this year.That action came after more than 20 attacks on Muslims, including arson at Muslim-owned businesses and petrol-bomb attacks on mosques, were recorded in two months.Authorities said they were keen to avoid a repeat of violence seen in June 2014 when four people were killed and several injured in clashes between the two communities in the same region.That unrest was blamed on a radical Buddhist extremist group whose leaders are currently facing several court cases for instigating inter-faith violence.