Buddhist-Muslim clashes leave 3 dead in Sri Lanka

At least three people were killed and more than 100 injured in clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in southern Sri Lanka, a hospital official said Monday.
Clashes broke out earlier Sunday in Aluthgama, 60 kilometres south of Colombo, when a group led by Buddhist monks protested a previous attack by a Muslim group on a monk in the area. The bodies of three Muslims were brought to the morgue of a local hospital, and at least 78 people were being treated for injuries, said a hospital official who asked not to be named.
A curfew imposed late Sunday “has been extended indefinitely” in Aluthgama and the adjoining town of Beruwala, police spokesman Ajith Rohana said. Both are both predominantly Muslim areas.
Most of the damage was to shops and houses owned by Muslims, a nationwide minority. Several shops were burnt down.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced an enquiry. “The government will not allow anyone to take the law into their hands,” he tweeted from the G-77 summit in Bolivia.
Members of the radical Buddhist group Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) reportedly led the attack on the Muslims. The group, which includes monks, says it is defending the rights of Sri Lanka’s Buddhists.
The chief monk of the BBS in a speech immediately before the clashes warned that any Muslims who harm the country’s Buddhists will not be spared.
Buddhists make up about 70 per cent of the country’s population of 20 million, and Muslims almost 10 per cent.
Extra security forces have been deployed in the two affected towns, and Muslim areas in the capital.