A group of Muslim Ministers and Parliamentarians as well as Muslim civil society said that some items found during police raids carried out on Muslim homes and places of worship, were kept for self defence.
Addressing a special media conference in Colombo today, the Muslim Ministers and civil society said that misinformation was leading to the Muslim community in Sri Lanka being given a bad name.
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader Rauff Hakeem said that search operations being conducted by the Police were being unnecessarily sensationalised by the media.
He said that misinformation was leading to panic being spread which will not help attempts to return the country to normalcy.
“We must differentiate between normal criminal activity and terrorist activity,” he said.
Hakeem said that some items discovered during the search operations would have been kept for self-defence purposes in any community.
He also said that if the search operation was conducted around the country involving every community much more items would have been found.
Hakeem said that since the search operations are focused only on the Muslim community the discoveries give the impression the Muslims are preparing to create serious mayhem.
Courtesy: Colombo Gazette
