Sri Lanka curtails school gatherings due to security fears

COLOMBO, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's education authorities have restricted all public events in connection with schools and ordered these events to be conducted within school premises due to security consideration.

The Western Province Chief Minister Reginold Cooray told reporters here Sunday that participation of adults is to be restricted to barest minimum.

"Participation of adults will be the only way where outsiders could get into schools," Cooray, who is in charge of schools in the Western Province including the capital Colombo, said.

The Ministry of Education issued a circular last week banning all outdoor sports activity by schools after last Sunday's suicide bomb attack carried out by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)rebels killed nine students and a baseball coach from a school in Colombo.

The decision is expected to force the cancellation of traditional annual cricket matches involving Colombo's leading schools.

Some of these matches have been held without a break over the last century.

The schools within the Colombo Municipal limits remained closed last week for fear of attacks by LTTE rebels, who have been fighting government troops since the mid-1980s to set up a separate homeland for the minority Tamil community. 　

Source: Xinhua