Occupying SL military demolishes mosque in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 August 2014, 23:38 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lankan military has demolished a mosque situated at Karumalai-oottu in Trincomalee Town and Gravets division within the past 2 days, Muslim fishermen from Trincomalee said. The mosque, established in 1926 and registered as a Jumma Mosque in 1947, has been seized by the SL military, which demarcated the area as ‘High Security Zone’ in 2009. The land where the mosque is situated comes under the 1200 acres of lands from Prima flourmill to Karumalai-oottu, including Ve’l’lai-ma’nal and Clappenburg Bay, which are being given to China under a ‘defence related development’ project by Colombo.

The demolition has been carried out silently within the past two days amidst heavy rains by the SL military deploying heavy machinery. A commander of the SL military in the area has admitted that ‘part of the mosque’ was ‘damaged’ when the SL military was constructing a ‘restaurant’ close to the mosque.

The occupying SL military has blocked Muslim politicians from the opposition UNP from visiting the site of the destruction.

The Muslim leadership collaborating with Mahinda Rajapaksa regime has been severely criticized by the Tamil-speaking Muslims who have been chased away from the area.

The ‘Chief Minister’ of Eastern Provincial Council (EPC), Mr Najeeb Abdul Majeed of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), who had vowed to release the mosque from SL military occupation during the EPC elections in 2012, has been struggling to get permission from the occupying Sinhala military to visit and see the state of demolition on Sunday.

Colombo’s plan is two-fold: Sinhalicising Trincomalee on one hand to have the demographic control, and on the other hand converting it into a functioning major military base of international importance, so that all the powers in the world have to be always in negotiating terms with the Sinhala-Buddhist State in Colombo.

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