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Buddhist monks take over Religious Affairs Ministry

Buddhist monks occupied the Ministry of Religious Affairs today, staging a sit down protest inside the building against the recently formed police unit dedicated to dealing with religious affairs, reported Al Jazeera.

"Nowhere else in the world has there been a special police unit setup to investigate religions. This is a conspiracy led by the Western powers. As the complaints increase, organisations such as the United Nations will say that religious freedom does not exist in the country," Iththakande Saddhatissa Thero, general secretary of the Buddhist monks' organisation Ravana Balaya that led the protest, told Al Jazeera.

"They will have to arrest us and drag us out of here. We will not leave until this unit is shut down," he added.

See here for more, on Al Jazeera.

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