Gunmen attacks minority Muslim voters in Sri Lanka

Gunmen opened fire and pelted stones on a convoy of more than 100 vehicles carrying minority Muslim voters in Sri Lanka, about 240 kilometers north of Colombo, on Saturday. No casualties have been reported.

According to police, two buses were hit and the convoy was carrying minority Muslim voters from the coastal town of Puttalam to Mannar.

Police rushed to the spot and escorted the convoy so that the registered voters could cast their votes.

Frontrunners in the Sri Lanka presidential elections include former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and cabinet minister for housing, construction and cultural affairs Sajith Premadasa. Voters will be giving their three preferences and candidate who gets more than 50 percent votes will be declared as winner. If no candidate gets the required votes, the second preference will be added to the tally and winner will be picked up from the two.

The key issues in the presidential elections are national security, corruption, ethnic and religious divisions and sluggish economic growth.

Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain in 1948. It adopted the current name in 1972.

In 1975 the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) demanded separate state for ethnic minority Tamils in the north and east parts of Sri Lanka. Civil war kicked off in 1983.

In 2009 the civil war was declared to have come to an end after Sri Lankan forces killed LTTE rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.