Protests over Muslim politicians grip Sri Lankan city

Demonstrations by several thousand people gripped Sri Lanka’s pilgrim city of Kandy on Monday as Buddhist monks demanded the sacking of three top Muslim politicians over the Easter suicide bombings.

 

 

Demonstrations by several thousand people gripped Sri Lanka’s pilgrim city of Kandy on Monday as Buddhist monks demanded the sacking of three top Muslim politicians over the Easter suicide bombings.

Shops and offices were closed in the city 115 kilometres (70 miles) east of Colombo as the crowd including several hundred monks rallied outside the famous Temple of the Tooth.

Inside the temple, where Buddhists believe a tooth of the Buddha is enshrined, prominent monk Athuraliye Ratana was staging what he calls a “death fast” since Saturday.

Ratana is demanding the sacking of the Muslim governors of two provinces and a Muslim minister in the government of the Buddhist-majority island nation of 21 million people.

He accuses them of supporting the Islamic extremists responsible for the April 21 attacks on three churches and three hotels that killed 258 people including 45 foreigners.

The head of the Catholic Church in Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, also travelled to Kandy on Monday to express solidarity with Ratana.

Muslims make up around 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s population.