Sri Lanka poll toll 32

Press, 26 July 1977, Page 8

Sri Lanka poll toll 32

NZPA-Reuter Sri Lanka Thirty-two persons were killed in post-election violence in Sri Lanka at the Week-end the police have said in Colombo, the capttaL The killings took place between Saturday afternoon and early Sunday during a series of fierce clashes be- i tween supporters of rival [political parties. Shops and houses owned iby political figure- were attacked and looted and several business premises were set on fire in and around the central Sri Lanka cite of Kandy and in districts near Colombo. Superintendent Frank de Silva said a number of ar- ; rests had been made, but he 1 gave no total. Those arrested included ; the former Sri Lanka Free- <

i dom Party member for Gampola, near Kand>. Mr D. \| • Jayaratne. after an incident near his house in which one > man was shot dead and four "seriously wounded. Superintendent de Silva said all the deaths had oc i curred in the Kandy and Coi lombo areas, and no new injcidents had been reported since Sunday morning. He said the police now had con . trol. He >aid a 15-hour curfew had been imposed in the far northern district of Mannar near Jaffna, because of fears ot a communal clash be tween Tamil Hindus and Muslims. Rival religious groupsome armed with guns, had been on the streets and an ■incident had seemed possible at any time. The curfew had defused the crisis.