Sri Lanka disallows Buddhist plans to disrupt Muslim event
A court in Sri Lanka has prohibited two ultra-nationalist Buddhist organizations from proceeding with plans to disrupt rituals during a Muslim event.
On Sunday, Colombo Magistrate’s court issued restraining orders against two extremist groups led by Buddhist monks who intended to disrupt a gathering of members of Dawoodi Bohra, a Shia sect, on the day of Ashura in the capital, said police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera.
Ashura is the 10th day of the lunar month of Muharram and is the day when the Third Shia Imam and the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Imam Hossein (PBUH), and 72 of his companions were martyred in Karbala, in southern Iraq, in 680 AD by the army of the Umayyad caliph, Yazid I.
Ashura, which is the culmination of a 10-day annual mourning period in Muharram, is also commemorated by Shia Muslims in many countries across the world, including prominently in Iran.
According to Gunasekera, police knew about the disruption plans of the two groups in Colombo, where police and troops have already stepped up security.
It is estimated that some 25,000 adherents of the sect from around the world have been gathering in the Sri Lankan capital since Saturday for the religious event.
The police official did not say what exactly the two extremist groups had been planning.
The religious gathering takes place over four months after coordinated bomb attacks against three Christian churches and three hotels claimed the lives of at least 258 people and wounded nearly 500 others.
Colombo blamed the deadly attacks on a little-known local Takfiri outfit. Two days later, the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group separately claimed responsibility for the bomb attacks.
The Sri Lankan government declared a nationwide state of emergency for four months and relaxed it in August.
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