Senior Sri Lankan journalist flees country after armed attack

A senior journalist in Sri Lanka has left the country three weeks after she and her family were held at knifepoint during a raid at her house.

Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema, associate editor of the Sunday Leader newspaper, led a trade union for journalists and had also received death threats.

She told the BBC she had left for a few months but would be back.

Abeywickrema's lawyer said she had left the country fearing for her and family's security.

In the raid on 24 August four masked, armed men punched her in the face and threatened her, her 10-year-old daughter and both her parents with knives.

They stole goods but also spent hours rifling through documents.

The police and army have however described the incident as a burglary that was not aimed at stifling the media.

A media rights group said that Abeywickrema's departure is a sign of a continuing 'war against journalists'.

The former editor of her newspaper was shot dead four years ago and another ex-editor fled the country last year, the report added.