Under New PTA Regulations, 11 Muslim Groups Banned in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) allows for warrantless arrests and detainment up to a year and a half with hardly any access to courts or counsel. There have been reports of torture, disappearances, and the loss of human rights. Investigations may begin after arrests and police do not need to give a reason for the arrest. 

New regulations were added to the PTA on March 21, 2021, which would deradicalize people deemed to be religious extremists and send them to rehabilitation camps. Arrests have already been happening since 2019 and beyond where 125 Muslims including two infants are being held in Kattankudy; some for simply owning items with Arabic writing. 

Arrests and detainment are based upon the subjective interpretation of the official at the time. This includes both words and actions. People may also be arrested for any “acts of violence or religious, racial or communal disharmony or feelings of ill will or hostility between different communities”.

Rehabilitation camps required all LTTE members to go after the end of the Civil War in 2009 and dozens disappeared. As posted in The Guardian, not only LTTE were rehabilitated, but as one woman said, “ordinary, poor people” who had nothing to do with the war were also forced into the camps. In total, up to 300,000 Tamils were imprisoned. 

Both international and local organizations including the United Nations have asked for its repeal. Sri Lanka’s previous government pledged to do so, but 2019’s Presidential winner Gotabaya Rajapaksa campaigned on battling “Islamic extremism”. 

Under new regulations, the Sri Lankan government also banned 11 Muslim groups, two of which are international terrorist organizations, while most are local faith groups. By grouping these together, the government has vilified innocent organizations through name combination association. In 2014, 16 Tamil diaspora organizations were also banned. 

In occupied East Turkestan, or what is referred to as Xinjiang, China, there are up to three million Uyghurs held in detention or concentration camps. This February, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Secretary Admiral Jayanath Colombage has denied that there is a genocide taking place or that there are detention centers in the region. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Wenbin also said at February’s United Nations Human Rights Council that Sri Lanka’s human rights record is an internal affair.

We thought that after burials would be permitted again things would be better in Sri Lanka, but they are rapidly growing worse. Through deradicalization camps, burka and hijab bans, the imminent shutdown of over 1,000 Islamic schools, and a ban on Islamic items coming into the country, Islamophobia and the targeting of minorities is on the rise in Sri Lanka.

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