Sri Lanka’s hardline monks on Monday broadened a growing campaign by the Buddhist clergy against the government, threatening street protests if the island’s Tamil minority is granted greater autonomy. Radical monk Maagalkande Sudaththa said hardline Buddhists were mobilising Sri Lankans from the majority Sinhalese ethnic group to resist a new power-sharing arrangement being drafted by … Read more
Sri Lanka vowed Wednesday to grant greater autonomy to its Tamil minority in a new constitution after an influential Buddhist monk said the clergy opposed the plan. President Maithripala Sirisena has said the new constitution will grant extensive autonomy to Tamils concentrated in the island’s northern and eastern regions. He has said he wants to … Read more
Police in Sri Lanka have arrested a key figure from an extremist Buddhist organisation blamed for a series of hate crimes against Muslims that has drawn international censure. The 32-year-old man from the radical Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), or Buddhist Force, is the first suspect to be arrested in connection with arson attacks against Muslims … Read more
Rights groups accused Sri Lankan police Wednesday of failing to stop a wave of hate crimes against Muslim businesses and mosques in the Buddhist-majority country. Police are yet to make any arrests in connection with more than a dozen arson attacks against Muslims shops, mosques and a burial ground in the past month. Prominent rights … Read more