Occupying Colombo erects 2nd Buddha temple at educational suburb of Tamils in Ki'linochchi
[TamilNet, Monday, 01 October 2018, 22:57 GMT]
Sinhala extremist monks from South and the occupying SL military in civilian clothes along with Sinhala students launched a second Buddhist temple within the Ki'linochchi campus premises of the Jaffna University a week ago on 24 September. The move comes amidst strong objections from the Tamil students. The University administration was also critical as it had allocated a venue for the construction of places of worship for all religions enjoying equal status. However, Sinhala Buddhist Establishment and the occupying SL military want to put up a grand Buddhist site as the unitary Constitution of genocidal Sri Lanka is giving ‘foremost’ place to the Buddhism, Tamil student leaders said.
It is the second Buddha temple to be put up inside the premises. The move is only contributing to aggravate the already deteriorating confrontation between the Tamil people and the intruding monks, the student leaders said. It would be difficult to put an end to the colonial construction of Buddhist temples in the country of Eezham Tamils until the underlying national question is resolved, they said. The Tamil students demand the removal of the first Buddha statue as only one place of worship be allowed inside the premises. The SL government has allocated one million rupees for the construction of a Buddhist vihara inside the campus premises, the student leaders said. A monk is staying inside the University premises to complete the project. The Tamil student leaders also blamed the University administration in Jaffna for its reluctance to shift some of its educational institutions from Jaffna to Ki'linochchi. The Ki'linochchi campus is located at “A'riviyal Nakar” (the educational suburb), which was established during the de-facto Tamil Eelam administration by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
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