COLOMBO, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Minister of Public Administration and Management Ranjith Madduma Bandara was sworn in as the new law and order minister on Thursday in the wake of deadly communal clashes in Kandy, Central Sri Lanka.

Bandara, who is a senior member from the ruling United National Party, took oaths in front of President Maithripala Sirisena, at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo.

Bandara took over the portfolio from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who temporarily took over the Law and Order Ministry last month.

President Sirisena declared a week-long nationwide state of emergency on Tuesday after violent communal clashes erupted in Kandy, leaving three dead and several injured.

The state of emergency is the first ever declared since the country ended a civil war in May 2009.

Mobs have burnt homes, businesses, temples and mosques after a 41-year-old man succumbed to his injuries on Sunday after being attacked by a group of people on Feb. 22.

The police said 24 people had been arrested over the killing.