Sri Lanka lifts state of emergency

International Desk Published: 18 March 2018, 10:54 AM

Sri Lankan Navy soldiers stand guard next to shops that have been closed in protest following deadly communal violence in other parts of the country, in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo on March 9.(AFP Photo)

Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena said Sunday he had lifted a nationwide state of emergency imposed March 6 after Buddhist-Muslim clashes, reports Voice of America.

“Upon assessing the public safety situation, I instructed to revoke the State of Emergency from midnight yesterday,” Sirisena said on his Twitter feed.

He declared a state of emergency to rein in the spread of communal violence after Buddhists and Muslims clashed in the Indian Ocean island’s central district of Kandy.

Two people were killed and hundreds of Muslim-owned properties and more than 20 mosques were damaged, media reported.

Tension has been growing between the two communities over the past year, with some hard-line Buddhist groups accusing Muslims of forcing people to convert to Islam and vandalizing Buddhist archaeological sites.

Some Buddhist nationalists have also protested against the presence in Sri Lanka of Muslim Rohingya asylum-seekers from mostly Buddhist Myanmar, where Buddhist nationalism has also been on the rise.