Government attacks Jaffna “Sinhala Ravaya” temple-Suresh
- digathanews.com
- Created on Monday, 12 August 2013 17:43
- Written by neyo-
TNA MP Suresh Premachandran says that the TNA denies any accusation leveled against them regarding the attack made upon the Jaffna temple of the "Sinhala Ravaya".
He says that this is an action committed by the Govt to inflame a tensed situation in the Jaffna region.
MP claimed that the Govt is trying to get an advantage in the elections by creating disputes in Jaffna.
Pointing out that the Govt is trying to turn up trumps by reducing the voting percentages, the MP reminded that there have been no bomb attack reported in Jaffna during the last 4 years after the defeat of the LTTE.
He questioned how could an unidentified group be able to come from outside and attack when the whole area is still under army control.
Yet Another Despicable Act
Kath Noble
It doesn’t take many people to destroy a country. This is a lesson that we have to learn, and we have to do it fast, while the hard won peace in Sri Lanka is still more or less intact.
On Saturday night, a mob attacked a mosque in the Grandpass area of Colombo. The respected journalist DBS Jeyaraj has said that he believes that it was carefully planned. According to his report, thugs from outside the area met at the local Buddhist temple, then made their way clandestinely through land occupied by Sinhalese to the back of the mosque. On hearing the bells of the temple being rung, they started throwing stones and bottles at the building. Another group – led along the main road by monks, shouting that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala Buddhist country and Muslims should be thrown out – joined the attack.
The temple continued ringing its bells, drawing an even bigger crowd of Sinhalese from the neighbourhood, who were told by their local priests that the mosque was in the process of being destroyed. They went along to help.
By this time, the gates of the mosque had been torn down.
The Police – who had been assigned to protect the mosque in the wake of a demonstration by the Ravana Balaya – stood and watched. DBS Jeyaraj says that they may even have encouraged the mob.
The mosque was saved by the arrival of local Muslims, who were determined to protect their place of worship.
This is when the authorities decided to intervene.
What concerned them was not the prospect of the destruction of a mosque, even though the Government had agreed after the dispute with the Ravana Balaya that it should be allowed to remain – thanks to the intervention of Deputy Minister Faizer Mustapha, president of the SLFP’s Muslim unit and the SLFP’s co-organiser of the Colombo Central electoral division. (Mahinda Rajapaksa himself was party to the discussions, along with Prime Minister and Minister of Buddha Sasana and Religious Affairs D.M. Jayaratne.) Instead, they were worried about the safety of the Sinhalese gathered outside the mosque.
A very similar thing happened again on Sunday afternoon. Read More
