Gunmen open fire on buses carrying Sri Lankan voters

Gunmen
opened fire on a convoy of buses carrying minority Muslim voters in northwest
Sri Lanka on Saturday, hours before polling in presidential elections got under
way, police said.

There were
no immediate reports of casualties, but a police official said the attackers
had burnt tyres on the road and set up road blocks to entrap the convoy of more
than 100 vehicles.

“The gunmen
opened fire and also pelted stones,” a police official in Tantirimale, 240
kilometres (150 miles) north of Colombo said. “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 police official said.

Police
reinforcements rushed to the area and cleared the obstructions on the road and
escorted the convoy so that passengers could cast their vote.

The incident
came as police and troops were locked in a tense standoff in the
Tamil-dominated northern peninsula of Jaffna where residents complained of
military road blocks ahead of voting.

Police
reported to the independent Election Commission that the army was illegally operating
roadblocks that could discourage residents from freely travelling to polling
booths on Saturday.

Police
sources said they had also warned local military commanders that any disruption
to the election would be reported to courts and offenders prosecuted.

Local media
reports have feared that a strong military presence in Jaffna, the heartland of
the island’s Tamil minority, could influence voter turnout and favour
Rajapaksa, a former defence ministry chief and brother of former president
Mahinda Rajapaksa.