A Buddhist religious flag was hoisted n front of Jaffna bus station in the centre of the city by a group of unknown persons on Monday evening, despite protests from the local Tamil community.
Local shop owners in the town said the Buddhist flag had appeared overnight with a makeshift flagpole, with no signs to indicate why it was there or who had raised it. Tens of thousands of Sri Lankan soldiers are deployed across the heavily militarised North-East.
Though local activists from the TNPF removed it the same day, the flag had been reconstructed and hoisted once more by the evening. Many locals suspected that Sinhala Buddhists, perhaps linked to the Sri Lankan military, were responsible.
V. Parthiban, a member of the Jaffna Municipal Council, said the raising of a Buddhist flag in the Tamil homeland was symbolic of how “Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism is slowly trying to swallow our native lands”.
He called on Tamils across the region to speak out against such moves fearing that even more Tamil landmarks may be replaced with Sinhala Buddhist monuments.
We need your support
Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.
Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view
We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.
For more ways to donate visit https://donate.tamilguardian.com.
