A Sri Lankan minister this week said hard-line Buddhists were behind the recent days of anti-Muslim violence, describing the attacks as "organised" and "systematic".
"These are organised attacks on Muslim business houses and premises," Navin Dissanayake, minister of plantation industries, said at a press briefing yesterday.
The attacks were organised and systematically carried out in several locations by people brought form outside, he added.
"They were organised thugs that have been brought to the areas from other areas. We have evidence and we can prove this," he said.