Angulana Christian church attacked
June 6, 2013
A Christian church in Angulana was attacked last night, police sources told the Colombo Gazette.
The police said that an unidentified group had attacked the building and then set fire to the holy bread served for communion on Sundays.
There are no reports of injuries caused to anyone as a result of the attack.
Police spokesman S.P Budhika Siriwardena confirmed the incident and said that two statues were among the church property damaged in the attack.
Worshipers of the church were seen praying outside the premises this morning following the attack.
The attack comes just days after the US State Department released its international religious freedom report for 2012 in which it said that last year U.S. embassy officials conveyed U.S. government concerns about religious freedom in Sri Lanka, particularly attacks on churches, to government leaders and urged them to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators.
The report which looks at religious freedom, or the lack of it in all countries for 2012, noted that in certain instances, local authorities in Si Lanka failed to respond effectively to communal attacks, including attacks on members of minority religious groups.
The report said that there were reports of societal abuses and discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice.
“Sporadic violent attacks on Christian churches by Buddhists and some societal tension due to ongoing allegations of forced or “unethical” conversions (i.e., the use of bribes to persuade people to convert) continued, although the number and scale of attacks were reportedly fewer than in recent years. Intolerance of, and discrimination against, Muslims by some Buddhists increased during the year,” the report said. (Colombo Gazette)
Report by Indika Sri Aravinda
ඔන්න අන්තවාදය මාට්ටු.. කාටද ඔනා උනේ මේ සිද්දිය ජාතියන්තරේට කියන්න... ඔන්න මෙව්වා කරපු උන්ගෙ හෙලුව.. තම්බින්ට ඇමෙරිකන් සපොට් එක නැති උනාම පල්ලි ගිනි තියලා මෙහෙ ආගමේ නිදහස නැ කියලා පෙන්නන්න හදනවා..
මම හිතන්නේ නෑ මේක හම්බ වැඩක් කියලා! මේ වෙන දෙයක් ඇත්තේ. අඟුලාන මම දන්න තරමට ක්රිස්තියානි බලකොටුවක්. ලුනාවෙන් පටන්ගත්තම වැඩියෙන්ම ඉන්නේ ක්රිස්තුස් වහන්සේ අදහන කට්ටිය වෙඩිකන්ද පාර වෙනකන්. බෞද්ධ අයත් ඉතාමත් අඩුවෙන් ඉන්නේ .මුස්ලිම් අයව ඔය හරියේ හොයනවා කියන්නේ කලුනික හොයනවා වගේ, මේ වෙන මොකක් හරි ඇතුලේ කෝන්තරයක් වෙන්න ඕනේ
