Tag: Colombo

COLOMBO (TIP): An Indian national has been arrested for allegedly murdering a fellow Indian at a restaurant here in Sri Lanka, police said on July 6. The accused, who is the manager of the restaurant at Galle Face in Colombo, attacked Ajay Kumar, who was employed at the same place as the head chef, with a sharp weapon following a brawl on Wednesday night. Both the persons were lodged together at the nearby Slave Island area, the police said. The body of the 29-year-old victim is kept at the Colombo Hospital mortuary while the accused is in custody. The accused is scheduled to be produced before the Colombo Fort magistrate later on Thursday, the police said. The police arrested the suspect along with the sharp weapon used to commit the murder. (PTI)
Six killed in clashes in Rohingya camps in Bangladesh after ICC prosecutor visit
BANGLADESH (TIP): Six Rohingya people were killed in Bangladesh refugee camp clashes that broke out hours after an International Criminal Court prosecutor visited the settlements to gather testimony, police said on July 7.
Bangladesh is home to around a million ethnic Rohingya people, most of whom fled a 2017 military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar that is now subject to a genocide probe at the UN court.
This week’s violence was the latest in a series of deadly clashes between the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), two rival insurgent groups operating in the camps.
Faruq Ahmed, a spokesman for the Armed Police Battalion that looks after security in the refugee camps, told AFP that five people had been shot dead in a gunfight before dawn on Friday.
“All five who were killed in the gunfight are members of ARSA including a commander,” he said, adding that security had been stepped up in the camps as a result.
Ahmed said that the violence came hours after the murder of Ebadullah, a refugee community leader, apparently at the hands of ARSA members.
Local daily Prothom Alo said Ebadullah, 27, had been marshalling refugees to meet with ICC prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan, who visited the camps on Thursday afternoon to record statements from witnesses to the 2017 crackdown in Myanmar.
The insurgent group did not immediately comment on the killings, but its members have been accused of targeting Rohingya civic leaders who challenge its authority. (AFP)

COLOMBO (TIP): Sri Lanka is drafting new legislation to curb the growing incidents of religious slander and online vitriol, according to the country’s religious affairs minister.
The move comes after a stand-up comedian Nathasha Edirisooriya allegedly made certain derogatory remarks on religions, which she uploaded online.
Edirisooriya offered an apology, but a complaint was filed and she was taken into custody on May 31 while trying to fly out of the country.
Sri Lanka’s Minister of Buddhashasana, Religious, and Cultural Affairs Vidura Wickramanayaka on Sunday said the legislation would soon be passed to curb the growing incidents of religious slander in the country.
“This will stop all incidents of demeaning religion on social media,” he asserted.
The controversy surrounding Edirisooriya’s comments is not a one-off incident. Earlier this month, Pastor Jerome Fernando, a self-styled Godman, was accused of derogatory comments on Lord Buddha, which went viral on social media. On May 15, President Ranil Wickremesinghe ordered the Criminal Investigation Department to launch an immediate investigation into the matter, arguing that such statements could create religious conflicts in the country. Like Edirisooriya, Fernando also offered an apology. He has, however, fled to Singapore and filed a fundamental rights petition to block his impending arrest.
In January, a popular Youtuber Sepal Amarasinghe was sent to police custody for making disparaging comments on the Sacred Tooth relic of Lord Buddha.
The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is a Buddhist temple in Kandy. It is located in the royal palace complex of the former Kingdom of Kandy, which houses the relic of the tooth of the Buddha. The arrest came after parliamentarians across the aisle unanimously condemned Amarasinghe’s comments on his YouTube channel.
Amarasinghe’s YouTube channel has nearly 80,000 subscribers and the outspoken man is well-known on social media for his unorthodox views that challenge what he claims are parochial traditions and customs.
Over 74 per cent of Sri Lanka’s 22 million population are Buddhists.
Sri Lanka’s Constitution accords Buddhism as the “foremost place” among the country’s religious faiths and commits the government to protecting it, while also respecting the rights of other religious minorities. (PTI)