Colombo: A week after the Easter Sunday terror attacks rocked the country, Sri Lanka intensified its efforts to clamp down on terrorism and ensure safety of its people with a ban on burqa and covering of face in public places under Emergency Regulations.
Immediately after the attacks, the island nation had declared Emergency in the country. According to News.lk, the Sri Lankan government's official portal, the ban would be effective from Monday. The involvement of a large number of women in the Easter Sunday attacks that killed more than 250 people and wounded nearly 500 in the island nation prompted the government to take the extreme decision. Burqa is an outer garment worn by Muslim women for covering the head and body.
“This is implemented on the need for the person’s face needs to be clearly exposed as a key criterion for establishing the identity. President has arrived on this decision to establish a peaceful society with reconciliation by ensuring the national safety and not inconveniencing any community,” the President Maithripala Sirisena's media division stated.
The Daily Mirror had reported last week that a burqa ban was being considered by the authorities.
"The government is planning to implement the move in consultation with the mosque authorities and on Monday several ministers had spoken to President Maithripala Sirisena on the matter," the paper reported as a source revealing this.
It has been pointed out that burqa and niqab were never part of the traditional attire of Muslim women in Sri Lanka until the Gulf War in the early 1990s which saw extremist elements introducing the garb to Muslim women.
Defence sources said a number of women accomplices of incidents in Dematagoda too had escaped wearing burqas, the report said.
A string of powerful blasts, suspected to be carried out by National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) jihadist group, ripped through three churches and as many luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing more than 250 people, shattering a decade of peace in the country following the end of the brutal civil war with the LTTE.
The bombs tore through three five-star hotels in Colombo: the Cinnamon Grand, the Shangri La and the Kingsbury. At least 38 foreigners, including 10 Indian nationals, have died in the attacks.
Forty suspects, including the driver of a van allegedly used by the suicide bombers, have been arrested in connection with the multiple attack.
With the enactment of the ban, Sri Lanka would join the group of nations in Asia, Africa, and Europe that have done so in the interest of preventing terrorists from using the burqa to evade police or hide explosives.
Among the nations that have enacted a ban on the item are Chad, Cameroon, Gabon, Morocco, Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Belgium, and Xinjiang, a Muslim-majority province in northwestern China.
(With inputs from PTI)
