Fresh violence breaks out in Kandy; Lanka govt blocks Net services

The authorities had imposed curfew on Tuesday till this morning after communal violence in the Theldeniya area of the central hill district that left two persons dead and damaged several mosques and homes.

Government spokesperson Rajitha Senaratne said that the curfew has been extended in the troubled hill district popular with tourists to prevent further violence.

However, arson attacks continued on Wednesday and Muslim-owned businesses were targeted by the mobs in spite of deployment of hundreds of security personnel in the district.

Following the incidents of violence, President Maithripala Sirisena on Tuesday declared a state of emergency and deployed the police and military to prevent further violence.

It was the first time since August 2011 that a state of emergency was in force in the Indian Ocean's island nation.

Police fired teargas shells to disperse rioters in curfew-bound areas hours after a state of emergency was imposed in a bid to quell anti-Muslim violence, an senior police official said. In the incidents of overnight violence in a Kandy suburb, Menikhinna, three policemen were injured while seven people were arrested for breaking the curfew and trying to cause unrest, police spokesman Superintendent of Police (SP) Ruwan Gunasekera said.

The government sent troops and elite police commandos to Kandy, home to famous tea plantations and Buddhist relics, to restore order and enforce the curfew.

The curfew was lifted last morning but was re-imposed soon after several mosques, shops and homes belonging to the minority community were badly damaged in the attacks by the Sinhalese Buddhists.

Sri Lanka has a long history of state of emergency during the LTTE rebellion both in the south and the Tamil minority dominated north and east of the island.

Schools in Kandy, which is about 115 kilometres from Colombo, remained closed on Wednesday.