Sri Lanka emergency law bans face coverings

Muslim women in Sri Lanka will no longer be able to veil their faces under an emergency law ordered by President Maithripala Sirisena that bans all kinds of face coverings that may conceal people's identities.

The law took effect Monday, eight days after the Easter bombings of churches and hotels that killed more the 250 people in Sri Lanka. Dozens of suspects have been arrested but local officials and the U.S. Embassy in Colombo have warned that more militants remained on the loose with explosives. Life on the South Asian island nation has been tense for people of all faiths.

"The ban is to ensure national security. No one should obscure their faces to make identification difficult," the statement said.

The ban came days after local Islamic clerics urged Muslim women not to cover their faces amid fears of a backlash after the bombings carried out by militants affiliated to the Islamic State group.

Muslims in the majority Buddhist nation account for about 10 percent of its 21 million population.

Most Sri Lankan Muslims practice a liberal form of the religion and only a small number of women wear the niqab.

(Cover:Sri Lankan Muslim girls wearing the niqab walk through the streets of the eastern town of Kattankudi in Batticaloa, May 20, 2011. /AFP Photo)

(CGTN)