Ranil pledges ‘culprits’ of Buddha statue vandalism will be punished – The Island

<p>Sri Lanka’s prime minister has pledged to take action against those who vandalised Buddha statues in the Kegalle district earlier this month, according to a report in The Island.</p> <p>Ranil Wickremesinghe reportedly told a group of senior Buddhist monks from the Asigiriya and Malwathu chapters on Friday that his government would take stern action against the "real culprits" who had damaged the Buddha statues in Mawanella last week.</p> <p>During the meeting he also told the monks of how Buddhism would continue to hold the foremost place on the island, despite any change in the constitution.</p> <p>His pledge was reportedly echoed by the speaker of Sri Lanka’s parliament Karu Jayasuriya, in a meeting with the Inter Religious Society.</p> <p>See more from The Island <a href="http://island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&amp;page=article-de…">here</a>.</p> <p>The comments from the senior Sri Lankan politicians come as the government announced it had appointed a committee to investigate the vandalism, as well as launching a fund to repair the damaged statues by next week.</p> <p>At least seven people have been reportedly arrested over the incident to date.</p>