Lanka Prez Sirisena lifts nationwide state of emergency

March 18, 2018 12:24

Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena today lifted a nationwide state of emergency imposed on March 6 for the first time since the civil war following days of communal violence between majority Sinhala Buddhists and minority Muslims in the country.

President Sirisena, who returned to Sri Lanka last night from an official visit to India and Japan, removed the state of emergency as the situation in the country returned to normal.

"Upon assessing the public safety situation, I instructed to revoke the State of Emergency from midnight yesterday, he tweeted today.

The government imposed a state of emergency on March 6 and blocked Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media sites following anti-Muslim violence in the island's central hills Kandy and Ampara districts in which three people were killed and hundreds of Muslim-owned properties, including mosques, were damaged.

Facing flak from the Opposition for not lifting the blockage on social media despite improvement in the situation, the government lifted the ban on Facebook on March 15 after officials from the US social media giant agreed to step up efforts to remove hate speech posted on its platform during the anti-Muslim violence.

The communal violence was triggered by the death of a Sinhalese man at the hands of a mob.

-- PTI

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