Muslim - Sinhalese racist issue which causes Gingthota flare up ... now settled

Muslim - Sinhalese racist issue which causes Gingthota flare up ... now settled

The racist conflict condition which flared up from last night yesterday in Gingthota area in Galle and in some adjoining villages has by now come under control, government has announced.

Grama seva areas such as Kurunduwatta, Maha Hapugala, Welipitimodera, Ukwatta and

Piyadigama came under curfew until 9 this morning because 2 days before this an incident of a Muslim lady who faced can accident at the hands of 2 young men travelling on a motor cycle in a Muslim dominated village had taken place. Accompanied with this incident a distraught situation has surfaced and in the process these 2 youth have come under harassment. In the meantime, 2 Muslim youngsters who took a hand in the assault were assaulted in return by some young Sinhalese boys when these two had been present at a football match, it is reported. Subsequently a conflict between these two racist groups have occured.

Villagers have said that a crowd of people who have come from outside Gingthota area had last night (17) created damage to several shops and houses and that some of them were with their faces covered. During this process some gunshots too were heard, it had been reported. The police have intervened with the intention of settling the issue and police curfew was imposed until 9 this morning (18) in Gingthota and some other areas. Officers were posted to police stations in surrounding areas under the control of the Special Task Force and special duty.

As extremist groups have attempted to throw their weight around by taking undue advantage of these incidents, the President and the Prime Minister have issued instructions to keep the security divisions on the alert. Since certain false information is being circulated around by the social media and thus causing this situation to flare up and as all such information does not portray the accurate situation, the government requests the public to be on the look out in that respect.