ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Saad Khattak hascondemned the island’s Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekara’s plansto ban burka and other face coverings on grounds of “national security”.
Sri Lanka is reportedly going to ban the wearing of the burqa and shut morethan 1,000 Islamic schools in the latest actions affecting the country’sminority Muslim population.
Khattak tweeted on Monday that the ban would “only serve as injury to thefeelings of ordinary Sri Lankan Muslims and Muslims across the globe”.
The Lankan government, however, says it would take time to consider aproposed ban on the wearing of burqas, after Sarath Weerasekera, signed apaper on Friday for cabinet approval to ban burkas calling it a sign of“religious extremism”.
“In our early days Muslim women and girls never wore the burqa,” saidWeerasekera in a news conference on Saturday. “It is a sign of religiousextremism that came about recently. We are definitely going to ban it”,referring to the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings which took the lives of almost270 civilians. Further, he accused madrassa Islamic schools of floutingnational education policy.
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However, government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella on Tuesday said a banwas a serious decision and “It will be done in consultation. So, itrequires time”.
The announcement came just weeks after Sri Lanka finally ended its forcedcremation policy, an issue raised by PM Imran Khan during his officialvisit to the country. The order authorising the permanent ban on burka andface coverings is currently pending parliamentary approval.
