Police say convoy of more than 100 vehicles attacked but there are no reports of casualties
Agence France-Presse
Sat 16 Nov 2019
Voters queue at a polling station in Colombo in Sri Lanka’s presidential election. Armed men attacked buses carrying Muslim voters in the country’s northwest. Photograph: Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP via Getty Images
Gunmen have fired on buses carrying minority Muslim voters in northwest Sri Lanka, police said, as an election official admitted failures to protect vulnerable communities ahead of presidential polls.
There were no immediate reports of casualties from the attack on Saturday, but a police official said the attackers had burnt tyres on the road and set up makeshift roadblocks to ambush the convoy of more than 100 vehicles.
“The gunmen opened fire and also pelted stones,” said a police official in Tantirimale, 240km (150 miles) north of the capital Colombo. “At least two buses were hit, but we have no reports of casualties.”
Muslims from the coastal town of Puttalam were travelling to the neighbouring district of Mannar, where they were registered to vote, the official added.
These are the first presidential elections since Easter Sunday when self-radicalised Islamist extremists carried out multiple bombings, killing 269 people in churches and hotels.
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