Sri Lanka declares state of emergency after Buddhist-Muslim clashes

• Sarwar Alam
• 06 March, 2018

By: Sarwar Alam

SRI LANKA declared a nationwide state of emergency for 10 days on Tuesday (6) to stop the spread of communal violence, a government spokesman said, after clashes erupted between majority Buddhists and members of the minority Muslim community. Tension has been growing between the two communities in Sri Lanka over the past year, with some hardline Buddhist groups accusing Muslims of forcing people to convert to Islam and vandalising 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…

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