After Easter Bombings, a Gruesome Retaliation

A Sri Lankan Cabinet minister says a Muslim man was killed and dozens of shops and mosques were destroyed in communal violence in apparent retaliation for the Easter Sunday bombings that killed more than 250 people. Rauff Hakeem, leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, says that the man was hacked to death Monday in northwestern Sri Lanka when majority ethnic Sinhalese mobs attacked Muslim-owned shops and homes, the AP reports. A police curfew was imposed in the region. Communal violence has also been reported in western Sri Lanka. Muslims have been subjected to hate comments in social media since the April 21 suicide attacks on three churches and three hotels. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks, which were carried out by radicalized local Muslims. (More Sri Lanka stories.)