close
Thursday March 28, 2024

Sri Lanka cops suspended over 'racist' assault on autistic teen

By AFP
June 06, 2020

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka´s police Friday suspended three officers over an assault against an autistic teenager after CCTV footage shared on social media triggered protests calling it a racially-motivated attack.

The 14-year-old boy from the minority Muslim community had been stopped at a checkpoint at the southern town of Aluthgama where police allegedly beat him up for violating a curfew last week. The coastal town of Aluthgama, south of Colombo, is a flashpoint for inter-communal unrest. Three Muslims were killed during mob violence blamed on Buddhist nationalists in June 2014.