Colombo – Police launched a crackdown on Muslim militants in eastern Sri Lanka when a deadline to surrender illegal weapons ended, a police spokesman said Sunday. The grace period to surrender weapons ended Saturday with a poor response, producing less than 25 weapons out of an estimated cache of more than 10 times that much, deputy police inspector general Edison Gunatillake said.
Security forces were pursuing militants identified as "jihadist groups" operating in the Kattankudy area, 303 kilometres east of Colombo.
The operation follows less than two months after government troops crushed the rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the northern and eastern parts of the country.
The Muslim militant groups have so far not come out in the open, but during occasional incidents some of the rival groups have clashed in the eastern province or have been involved in criminal activities.
