Sri Lanka lifts nationwide state of emergency

Upon assessing the public safety situation, I instructed to<br /> revoke the State of Emergency from midnight yesterday

COLOMBO, SRI LANKA: Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena said on Sunday he had lifted a nationwide state of emergency imposed on March 6 after Buddhist-Muslim clashes.

"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 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 rise.