Sri Lanka investigates troops over “humiliation” of Muslims Coronavirus pandemic News

Surveys ordered after social media posts show that soldiers are being forced to kneel on the streets by Muslim minorities for violating the COVID blockade rules.

The Sri Lankan military has launched an investigation after social media posts showed that soldiers are forcing Muslim minorities to kneel on the streets as punishment for breaking blockade rules.

Armed soldiers ordered Muslim civilians to keep their hands in the air while they were kneeling on a road in the town of Eravur, 300 km (190 miles) east of the capital Colombo, the AFP news agency reported on Sunday.

Neighbors said they thought the order was degrading and humiliating, and officials acknowledged that the troops did not have that power to impose sanctions.

The victims went to two restaurants to buy food.

“The initial investigation by the Military Police has already started after some viral photos were taken depicting the alleged harassment around Eravur,” the army said in a statement on Sunday.

He said the officer in charge had been removed and the soldiers involved had been ordered to leave the village.

“The army will take the strictest disciplinary action against all army personnel,” he added in a strange willingness for the military to investigate its own.

Sri Lanka is on a month-long shutdown to contain the third wave of coronavirus infections. The death toll from the virus has quadrupled to 2,531 since the wave began in mid-April.

The military, which is suffering from allegations of war crimes of the long decade of separatist war that ended in 2009, has been deployed to help police and health authorities apply virus restrictions.

Successive governments have denied that troops killed an estimated 40,000 civilians in the final stages of the separatist war, and killed a total of more than 100,000 between 1972 and 2009.