Condemning last night’s attack on a clothing store in Pepiliyana, SLMC leader and Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem today requested President Mahinda Rajapaksa to convene a cabinet meeting to discuss the ‘rising religious unrest and civil disturbance’ in Sri Lanka.

The Minister has also contacted Senior Minister MHM Fowzie – currently out of the country- and Ministers Rishard Bathiutheen and ALM Athaullah regarding the matter, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) said.

“The Minister wishes to take this opportunity to record his patent displeasure and condemnation on the attack on a private business site, last evening,” the party said in statement.

Minister Hakeem believes that yesterday’s attack was carried out as “a sequel to the ongoing attacks on the religious places and hate campaigns against Muslims and other religious minority communities” in the country.

The Minister says he is constrained not to treat this as an isolated incident and that he is equally dismayed at the ineffective response on the law and order machinery in containing the spread of such violence and unrest “that fuels insecurity and peace of all minority communities” in Sri Lanka.

The Minister of Justice says that the 30-years of civil unrest, violence and bloodshed confined to the North and East is now over and that now unrest and violence has extended to the rest of the country, “threatening post war religious freedom with the potential to lead our multi ethno-religious communities to irreversible depths of antagonism once again.”

Minister Hakeem believes the “President and his powerful good office” can and will spend no time in curbing such violence too, “by nipping it in the bud.”

The Minister further stressed that the duty and responsibility for the protection of people must be borne by the legitimate government and the State apparatuses of the country alone.

“No religious extremist/militant element can take the law onto themselves nor should they provoke others,” he said.

 The Justice Minister appealed to the President and the revered Buddhist high prelates to take “proactive action” to stop this spread of religious attacks and intolerance.