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| In this file photo taken on December 31, 2020 a policeman stands guard as protesters hold placards during a demonstration against the government policy of forced cremations of Muslims who died of the Covid-19 coronavirus, outside a cemetery in Colombo. (File photo by= AFP/Ishara D. Kodikara) |
[Asia News Communication = Reporter Reakkana] Sri Lanka on Friday (Feb 26) stopped forced cremations of people who died of coronavirus, after visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan urged Colombo to respect the funeral rites of the island's minority Muslims.
Reuters said that the government first banned burials in April over concerns - which experts said were baseless - by influential Buddhist monks that the practice could contaminate groundwater and spread the virus. The policy was decried by members of the South Asian nation's Muslim community who constitute 10 percent of the 21 million population. While health minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi didn't give a reason in her announcement reversing the ban, official sources said Khan had raised the subject with both President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa during his trip earlier this week. In response to the policy change, Khan thanked his Sri Lankan counterparts.
Dozens of demonstrators had used Khan's visit as an opportunity to call attention to the Sri Lankan government's disregard for Islamic burial customs and carried a mock coffin. Meanwhile, the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation had also raised the forced cremation policy at the United Nations in Geneva this week.
