Nidahas Tri-series 2018: Tournament in jeopardy as Sri Lanka imposes nationwide emergency

BCCI worried about Indian team safety, asks government to ensure protection.

Sri Lanka riot police | File Photo

The Nidahas Tri-series 2018 involving Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh was supposed to start from March 6 at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Sri Lanka, is now in jeopardy, as Sri Lankan government imposed a state of emergency for 10 days.

The reason behind the state of emergency is to rein the communal violence, a day after Buddhists and Muslims clashed in the Indian Ocean island's central district of Kandy. Some hard line Buddhist groups accused Muslims of forcing people to convert to Islam and vandalizing Buddhist archaeological sites.  Tensions grew and things came to blows between the two communities.

The Indian team is scheduled to play in the opening match of the T20I tri-series against Sri Lanka and is in Colombo. BCCI official Rajeev Shukla has asked the Indian government to ensure the safety of the Indian cricket team.

The Buddhist nationalists have also been protesting about the presence of Muslim Rohingya asylum-seekers in Sri Lanka. "At a special cabinet meeting, it was decided to declare a state of emergency for 10 days to prevent the spread of communal riots to other parts of the country," the spokesman, Dayasiri Jayasekara, told Reuters.

"It was also decided to take stern action against people who are instigating violence through Facebook," he added.

The government sent troops and elite police to Kandy to prevent clashes between majority Sinhalese Buddhists and minority Muslims, after a mob set fire to a Muslim owned shop.

 

 
 

By Jatin Sharma - 06 Mar, 2018

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