Attempts to damage Pak-Sri Lanka relations

Monday, June 30, 2014, Ramazan 01, 1435 AH

Monday, June 30, 2014 - SRI Lanka’s police have arrested key suspects involved in fuelling religious riots and looting, as minority Muslims expressed fears of more unrest during Ramazan. Police said eight people directly linked to the June 15 anti-Muslim riots were arrested last week and recovered gems and jewellery looted from two shops targeted during the violence. The violence, which erupted in the coastal resort of Alutgama, spilled over into the neighbouring international tourist resorts of Beruwala and Bentota.

Sri Lanka’s media and rights groups have accused the police of failing to prevent extremist Buddhist mobs attacking Muslims, who form 10 per cent of the country’s 20 million population. The announcement of the latest arrests came as the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, an umbrella group of 48 Muslim organisations, petitioned police chief N. K. Illangakoon expressing fears of more violence against their community . 

Tension has recently been high between the two sides, with Muslims calling on the government to protect them from hate attacks by Buddhists, and Buddhists accusing minorities of enjoying too much influence. We have no doubt that these demonstrations are being engineered by the enemies of traditional and historic relations between Sri Lanka and Pakistan and other Muslim countries. This relationship is flourishing and gaining depth, which is detrimental to the interests of enemies of Sri Lanka. Traditionally Buddhists are peace-loving people but their sentiments were earlier aroused in Myannmar as well where they killed Rohingya Muslims and burnt their houses. Certainly this is the work of enemies of Sri Lanka and the President Mahinda Rajapaksa has announced an investigation and said the government will not allow any one to take the law into their own hands. At the same time he urged all parties to act in restraint. We would urge the people of Sri Lanka, who are otherwise peace loving and hospitable, including Muslims and Buddhists to understand the complexities of the situation, sinister designs of the perpetrators and demonstrate maturity and foil all the conspiracies to create divisions among them.