Fear, shock among Sri Lankan Muslims in aftermath of Buddhist mob violence

In the areas surrounding the southwest Sri Lankan town of Aluthgama, an idyllic coastal settlement popular with tourists, Muslims and Buddhists have lived side by side peacefully for generations.

But a wave of deadly communal violence that followed a rally Sunday by hardline Buddhist nationalist monks has changed that.

"The house I owned was burnt down. My family has nowhere to go," Muhsin Shihab, a father of eight children, told CNN Tuesday.

His family, which has been sheltering at a local mosque since being displaced by the rioting, hadn't eaten for a day and a half, he said.

The rally, organized by the far-right Buddhist group Bodu Bala Sena (Buddhist Power Force), was called after an alleged altercation in the area between a group of young Muslims and a Buddhist monk and his driver on an important Buddhist religious holiday days earlier.

Addressing the crowd of thousands Sunday, the BBS's leader, Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara, gave an inflammatory speech.

Video footage from the event

shows the orange-robed monk using derogatory terms for Muslims and, to approving roars from the crowd, vowing that if any Muslim laid a hand on a member of the Sinhalese majority -- let alone a monk -- that would "be the end" of them.

After the rally, Buddhist mobs marched through Muslim neighborhoods, torching and destroying dozens of homes and shops, witnesses told CNN.

Following consecutive nights of violence, in which local medical staff say at least four people were killed and sixteen seriously injured, those made homeless by the rioting were sheltering in the town's main mosque Tuesday, shell-shocked and fearful of what may come next.