A group of Buddhist monks staged a protest yesterday (28) morning against eastern province governor Senthil Thondaman after he ordered a halt to development work at a temple in Trincomalee.
The agitation took place in front of the district secretariat, where a meeting of the district coordinating committee got disrupted as a result, correspondents said.
It was attended by protestors shouting slogans against Thondaman, accusing him of repressing Sinhala Buddhism and calling for their issues to be discussed in parliament.
Boralukanda Rajamaha Vihara at Periyakulam was order to stop development work in a letter by the divisional secretary on the oral instructions of MP R. Sampanthan and governor Thondaman.
The matter was taken up elsewhere too. Speaking in parliament, Minister Vidura Wickramanayake refused to accept the ‘unlawful order’, while ex-minister Mervyn Silva warned that those who lay their hands on temples and monks would be beheaded and their heads taken to Kelaniya.
