COLOMBO: A day after Sri Lankan police arrested five people, including a member of an ultra nationalist Buddhist group for violence against Muslims, allegations are on the rise that Muslim owned business establishments are systematically targeted with the intention of destroying the community economically.

“For almost three months this has been continuing without abate. The past few weeks these crimes have been consistently carried out where there is a burning of a Muslim owned business establishment per day. This sad saga first began in September in 2016 and initially it was erratic in occurring before it became regularised a few months back,” says Mohammed Samsudeen.

Samsudeen’s two-storied textile retail shop was burnt to the ground during the riots targeting Muslims in Alutgama, the South of Sri Lanka in 2014. It was rebuilt and opened for business in 2015 and was again burnt in September 2016.

According to Samsudeen this spate of burning Muslim shops began with his shop and where a month later a well known plastic factory, Nippon Plastics was burnt in Mawathagama and thereafter a popular fashion store in Kurunegala.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2017