23 April 2019 01:25 pm Views - 29525
With interrogation of suspects and other evidence pointing to the involvement of a large number of women in Easter Sunday attacks, the government has yesterday initiated moves in view of a possible ban of burqa and niqab in Sri Lanka, a highly placed government source said.
The government, he said, is planning to implement the move in consultation with the mosque authorities and yesterday several ministers had spoken to President Maithripala Sirisena on the matter.
It has been pointed out that burqa and niqab were never part of the traditional attire of Muslim women in Sri Lanka until the gulf war in the early 1990s which saw extremist elements introducing the garb to Muslim women.
Defence sources had revealed that a number of female accomplices of incidents in Dematagoda too had escaped wearing burqas.
Video by D Ruwandi