October 10, 2003	Friday	Sha’aban 13, 1424

COLOMBO, Oct 9: Police clamped a dusk-to-dawn curfew on a Muslim town in northeastern Sri Lanka on Thursday to prevent an escalation of clashes between minority Muslims and Tamils, officials said.

The troubles erupted overnight in the town of Kinniya when Tamil and Muslim villagers clashed over a land dispute, police officials in the area said.

Army units had been asked to help police maintain law and order in the highly volatile area, where there has been communal violence in the past.

A top Muslim leader, Rauf Hakeem, who is also the ports minister, was flown to the area on Thursday to defuse tension, a spokesman for Hakeem said.

Police said the curfew was a precaution to prevent fighting between the island’s two main minority groups.—AFP