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The Sri Lankan military has constructed a new Buddha statue besides a Hindu temple in Mannar, in a move decried by locals as yet another government sponsored act of Sinhalisation of the Tamil North-East.
The statue was built on an area of land by Manthai junction located in front of the ancient Thiruketheeswran temple. The five acres of land is currently occupied by the Sri Lankan military.
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Tamil villagers, who are the legal owners of land occupied by the military, were initially displaced by armed conflict in the region in 1991. When they finally managed to return to Mannar, they found the Sri Lankan military had since occupied their homes.
The military continued to prohibit access to the land said villagers. Since the armed conflict ended in 2009, a section of the land was subsequently declared off limits with the army stating they had discovered Buddhist archaeological findings. Sri Lanka’s archaeological department has since boarded off large sections of the region.
Villagers have appealed to the Northern Provincial Council, the Mannar district secretariat and various other political organisations to take action to prevent further Sinhalisation of the region.