SRI LANKAN AUTHORITIES FOUND THE MUSLIM SURGEON HAD NOT PERFORMED ANY STERILISATIONS
A month after hundreds of people were killed in Easter Sunday bomb attacks in Sri Lanka, a major local newspaper published a report claiming that a Muslim surgeon was a member of a terrorist group linked to the attacks and had secretly sterilised 4,000 Sinhala Buddhist women. The story was picked up by local television channels and widely shared on social media. But the claim is false; a major investigation by Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department found the doctor had not performed any sterilisations; all of Sri Lanka’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies have said the doctor has no links to terrorism.
— Media reports —
05/07/2019Mainstream Sinhala language daily newspaper, Divaina, published thisstory on May 23, 2019 which claimed that some 4,000 Sinhalese Buddhist women had been sterilised without their knowledge by a Muslim doctor at a hospital in Kurunegala, a town in Sri Lanka’s northwest.
The report is headlined:
“Thawheed Jamath doctor has sterilized Sinhala Buddhist mothers after C-section surgeries. Details revealed with proof. Widespread investigations carried out to arrest the doctor”.
“Thawheed Jamath” is a reference to National Thawheed Jamath, an Islamic group that Sri Lankan authorities have blamed for the Easter Sunday attacks on April 21, 2019, which left more than 250 people dead. Here is an AFP report on the attacks.
Below is a screenshot of the Divaina report:
