'Lanka Muslim congress not to accept ministerial portfolios until issues are resolved'
Colombo, Jul 22: Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, an ally of the government on Monday said that they will not return to the government and accept any portfolio until proper solutions are found for the issues faced by the minority Muslims especially after the Easter Sunday attacks.
All Muslim ministers, including Cabinet, state and deputy ministers in the Sri Lankan government resigned from their ministerial portfolios on June 3 citing the government's failure to ensure the safety of Muslims following the attacks.
However, parliamentarians Kabir Hashim and Abdul Haleem re-accepted their ministerial portfolios on June 19.
The Muslim political parties have been raising concerns over the arrests of several Muslims while the Sinhala majority nationalist groups focused on targeting certain Muslim politicians who they claimed had helped the National Thawheed Jammath (NTJ) to carry out the attacks on April 21.
Parliamentarian Rauf Hakeem said the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) supreme council held a special meeting on Sunday to decide whether to resume the ministerial portfolios left by the Muslim ministers in the government headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Following the deliberations, the SLMC said they would not return to the government to take up ministerial positions despite appeals to change their stance.
"We have more outstanding issues and concerns of the Muslim community to deal with," Hakeem, the SLMC leader who was the Minister of Urban Development before his resignation told reporters.
He said the SLMC was hoping to meet Prime Minister Wickremesinghe to discuss the concerns of the Muslim community.
Nine suicide bombers from the radical Islamic group attacked three churches and as many luxury hotels on April 21, killing 258 people and injuring 500 others.
The ISIS terror group claimed the attacks, but the government blamed the local Islamist extremist group NTJ for the Ester Sunday bombings.
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Salah-less Liverpool plays Inter in Champions League. Barcelona, Bayern, Chelsea all in action
London (AP): After leaving Mohamed Salah at home, Liverpool needs to show it can win without the Egyptian forward as Arne Slot's team takes on Inter Milan in the Champions League on Tuesday.
On a night when Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Tottenham are all in action, the focus is on Liverpool after Salah said Saturday it “seems like the club has thrown me under the bus.” Liverpool's response was to leave him out of the squad for its trip to Italy.
Liverpool's poor recent form boosts Inter's chances of picking up a fifth win in six games. A win for 13th-place Liverpool would put Slot's team back into the hunt for the top eight seedings for the knockout stages.
After losing its last Champions League game 3-0 to Chelsea, Barcelona aims to recover at home to struggling Eintracht Frankfurt. It will have to do without defender Ronald Araujo, who is suspended after his red card against Chelsea and has also been unavailable for personal reasons.
Seventh-place Chelsea is unbeaten in four Champions League games and visits Atalanta aiming to strengthen its hold on a top-eight spot offering direct entry to the round of 16. Bayern can earn its fifth win of the league stage by beating Sporting Lisbon in an early kickoff.
Tottenham, which lost 5-3 to Paris Saint-Germain last time out, has an easier task against Czech team Slavia Prague. Atletico Madrid visits PSV Eindhoven, Monaco hosts Galatasaray and Union Saint-Gilloise plays Marseille.
One game starts in an unusually early window at 1530 GMT (10:30 a.m. ET) as Kazakhstan's Kairat Almaty hosts Greece's Olympiacos.
