Orders go out not to ignore Indian intelligence warnings

Possibility of communal riots over temple

By Norman Palihawadane 

Local intelligence services have issued orders to their operatives to collect and process information pertaining to all parties and individuals involved in creating disturbances and unrest over the Kurundimale temple in Mullaitivu. They have responded to the leak of Indian intelligence reports warning of imminent communal riots that could be created by the disputes and controversies over the temple.

Senior local intelligence officers said that the orders had been issued to monitor political parties and activists who instigate Buddhists and Hindus to claim the ownership for the Kurundimale temple premises.

Some Indian newspapers have published intelligence warnings that there is a strong possibility of creating communal riots and such disturbances that could easily surpass those that took place in Sri Lanka, prior to the 2019 presidential elections, in terms of severity, intelligence sources said.

Buddhist monks and devotees have started coming to the Kurundimale temple premises since last Friday to hold religious rituals, according to reports from Mulaitivu.

As tensions are running high between Buddhists and Hindus, a large number of police personnel have been deployed in the area to prevent clashes between religious devotees.

The Buddhist monks, who came from the South, held a religious ceremony together with a large number of devotees at the Kurundimale temple, and as a result, it was difficult to hold the Pongal festival at the adjacent Hindu temple.