A man employed by a newly constructed Buddhist vihara in Trincomalee has been arrested over a case of possible arson, after a neighbouring Hindu temple was set alight this week.
The man, Saman Nanayakkara from Kandy, is accused of setting fire to the Malai Neeli Ammam temple.
Tensions escalated in the region after the temple, which had been standing in the East for some 300 years, was destroyed during the armed conflict. Though attempts by Tamils to reconstruct the temple on its original site were made, Buddhist monks blocked the move and constructed a vihara close to the original site in June 2009.
The reconstructed temple in Verugal has now been gutted by the fire. TNA Batticaloa district parliamentarian Seenithamby Yogeswaran visited the site and detailed the hardships faced by devotees of the temple.
“The Buddhist monk did not allow people to resurrect the Malai Neeli Amman temple in its original place,” Ceylon News quoted him as saying. “He treated the Hindu people of this area in a discriminatory manner.”
“If there are Buddhists and they need a temple. We firmly stand for their right to worship and respect their right to worship. But this is a place where the Buddhists have never lived. They established a Buddhist temple there and are grossly ignoring our traditional Hindu temple.”
“I have requested the people of this area keep calm,” he added, stating that TNA leader R Sampanthan would be raising this issue with the Sri Lankan president and prime minister. “We will take legal actions against those who prevent us from exercising our religious rights in our traditional habitats,” he said.
“This Malai Neeli Ammam should be and will be rebuilt in its original place. We are firm on this and will fight for this in and out of parliament. We will take this issue to UN and UNESCO,” he added.