In Sri Lanka, Muslims say Sinhala neighbours turned against them

Muslims live in fear after wave of attacks is blamed on Buddhist hardliners in the wake of the Easter Sunday bombings.
Kottaramulla, Sri Lanka – The stench of turpentine overpowered Jiffriya Ameer as she cradled her husband’s head on her lap on the front porch of her home and watched the blood drain from the gaping wound on his head and neck. Her three children watched in horror as their father gasped for breath.She screamed for help, but three police officers stood, looking on in disbelief, she said. The only vehicle which could take 49-year old Saleem Ameer to the hospital was engulfed in flames.
Minutes earlier, a Sinhalese mob had attacked Ameer with swords, fatally wounding him before pouring turpentine on his face.“It was hard for me to believe the mob could commit such a heinous crime,” she said.In spite of a state of emergency being in place following the deadly Easter Sunday bombings, on May 12 and 13, Sinhala mobs rampaged through at least 24 towns in western Sri Lanka, looting and attacking Muslim properties with stones, swords and petrol bombs.In addition to killing Ameer, the mobs wounded at least 14 other Muslims and destroyed over 540 Muslim-owned houses, shops, and mosques as well as nearly 100 vehicles, according to an assessment by local charities. Authorities said that Buddhist hardline groups were likely to blame for the wave of anti-Muslim riots that swept the island in apparent retaliation for last month’s bombings claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) group.Armed navy personnel stood guard on a narrow dirt track that leads to Ameer’s home in Kottaramulla, about 60km north of Colombo in western Sri Lanka. They are among hundreds of military and additional police who have been deployed in the region since the anti-Muslim riots.
Source: aljazeera.com