Grenade attack on Sri Lanka mosque kills four Muslims
Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels hurled two grenades at a mosque packed with worshippers in eastern Sri Lanka early today, killing at least four and injuring 21 others.
It was not immediately known whether the attack was linked to yesterday’s presidential election, which the rebels boycotted.
Sri Lanka’s Muslim population, which is at odds with the rebels, voted in the election.
“Two grenades were thrown at the mosque that killed four people,” said Deputy Inspector General of Police Nimal Lewke.
Police spokesman Rienzie Perera said at least 21 Muslims were wounded in the attack.
The Defence Ministry also confirmed the attack in Akkaraipattu in eastern Ampara district. There were at least 60 worshippers in the mosque, it said.
Sri Lanka’s Muslims generally do not trust the rebels, who are mostly Hindus. During two decades of civil war, the rebels carried out systematic killings of Muslims, including a massacre in August 1990 of 130 Muslims at two mosques on the same day, as they tried to assert control over eastern Sri Lanka.
In a separate incident, suspected rebels shot and wounded a policeman standing guard outside the office of a Tamil political party opposed to the guerrillas in northern Jaffna Peninsula, said military spokesman Brig. Nalin Witharanage.
The rebels started fighting in 1983 for a separate Tamil homeland in the north-east. The war stopped after a 2002 cease-fire. The uneasy truce is holding, but peace talks have stalled.
