Buddhist monks threw stones and damaged windows of the Bangladeshi embassy in Sri Lanka on Thursday, as they protested against attacks on Buddhist temples and businesses in Bangladesh.
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| A police officer and a monk inspect the damage (Daily Mirror) |
Bangladesh High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Sulfur Rahman, said about 900 protesters, mostly Buddhists monks, threw water bottles and brickbats at the high commission, causing damage to the windows and property.
Buddhist monk Gakagoda Gnenesaara said in the statement that,
“We were tolerant, but day by day we notice great injustice caused to Buddhists by Islamic extremists, we can no longer be patient.”
The protest was organised by a Buddhist organisation called Bodu Bala Sena.
A leaflet was distributed some days before the protest, which called on protestors to “strike down extremists as they flee”.
The gist of the leaflet, written entirely in Sinhalese, says, according to a writer on The Platform:
“It is time to show that this (Sri Lanka) is a Buddhist country by word and deed; many have forgotten that this is a Buddhist country, this notion should be reawakened.
“When cruel Islamic extremists prey on other innocent Buddhists, and when the entire world remains silent in the wake of it, it is time that we reawaken our race (Sinhala Buddhists) to respond to this.”
The contents of this leaflet may explain Sri Lanka’s Muslim’s hasty condemnation of the attacks on Buddhists in Bangladesh.
However Muslims in Sri Lanka are waiting in vain for a similar condemnation by the Sri Lankan government of the recent attacks by Buddhist extremists on Muslims in Burma.
Violence in Bangladesh began on Saturday night and is thought to have been caused by a picture of a burned Quran on Facebook, which, according to some claims, had been posted by a Buddhist.
Several Buddhist temples and businesses were torched and dozens of Buddhists were forced to flee.
Click here for more pictures and a video of the attack on the embassy in Colombo.
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