Sri Lankan President warns against emergence of a 'Muslim Prabhakaran'

Warning against the emergence of a "Muslim Prabhakaran", Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has called for unity among all communities in the country which saw the worst terror attack on Easter Sunday.

Acknowledging that the country has now been divided, Sirisena, who spoke in Mullaitivu, a former bastion of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), said on Saturday that religious leaders and politicians in the country were divided today.

The President urged the public "not to leave room for a Muslim Prabhakaran to be born," Colombo Gazette reported.

Velupillai Prabhakaran was the founder and leader of the LTTE or the Tamil Tigers, a militant organisation that sought to create an independent Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. The civil war in Sri Lanka that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people ended with the killing of Prabhakaran by Sri Lankan army in 2009.

"If we divide and fall apart the whole country will stand to lose. Another war will break out," he warned.

Following the Easter Sunday terror attacks on three Catholic churches and three luxury hotels by a local Islamist outfit with possible links to the Islamic State terror group, there were widespread attacks on the Muslim community.

Sirisena lamented that most politicians are focused on the elections later this year and not the country.

He said that the division is preventing the country from moving forward.

The President said that he understands the issues faced by the Tamils and will address some of them, the report said.

However, he said the past must be set aside and the country must unite to take the country forward.

He said that there should not be room for extremism to prosper.