Muslim political leaders in Sri Lanka yesterday demanded a special parliamentary debate into recent attacks on Muslim merchants and threatened to withdraw support for the ruling party. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) also demanded that an independent police commission be set up and that the government pay compensation to those who had their shops and homes destroyed in last week's riot in Mawanella, about 80 km east Colombo.

"If this anti-Muslim trend is not arrested immediately, the SLMC will lose its moral obligation to continue its support to the government," the congress said in a statement. The ruling People's Alliance of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, which won 107 seats in the 225-member chamber in an October general election, relies on the support of about 10 Muslim members of parliament.

The congress statement came out before the Information Ministry reported that Muslim youths had set fire to eight Sinhalese-owned shops in a town near Trincomalee, about 240 km from Colombo on the east coast, on Sunday night.

The ministry said that incident had been brought under control, as had another near Batticaloa, also on the east coast, in which a group of youths burnt tyres. "The SLMC fears that similar attacks may occur continuously or at regular intervals in other parts of the country," the statement said.

The SLMC also said the burning of mosques and the holy Quran were "a conspiracy by unruly elements to incite Muslim sentiments and to flare up Sinhala-Muslim communal violence all over the island".

An call for an independent police commission has been an opposition demand along with commissions to run the civil service, judiciary and elections. Kumaratunga has denounced the unrest in Mawanella, which was followed by clashes between Muslim demonstrators and police in Colombo on Friday, and has ordered an inquiry.