There have been no attacks in Sri Lanka linked to foreign Islamist groups despite local media reports that a 37-year-old Sri Lankan had been killed in Syria in 2015 while fighting for Islamic State (IS) group. There has been sporadic violence against minority Muslims, and several Buddhist monks and their followers have been arrested for instigating inter-communal violence. In Sri Lanka Muslims are considered an ethnic group. Almost all Buddhists in Sri Lanka are from the majority Sinhalese community. Sri Lanka declared a 12-day nation-wide state of emergency in May last year following inter-communal riots led by Sinhalese mobs in the central district of Kandy where three people were killed and hundreds of shops and homes were destroyed.

Source: Dhaka Tribune January 19, 2019 13:18 UTC