Swords may have been used to clear shrubs: Haleem

The caches of swords found from several mosques may have been used to clear shrubs surrounding those mosques, Muslim Religious Affairs Minister M. H. A. Haleem said.

Addressing a news briefing on Tuesday, he said it was reported that some mosques had swords hidden in them.

“We looked into it. Most of the mosques are surrounded by cemeteries with shrub jungles growing in them. They use various types of equipment to clear them and maybe they used these for that purpose,” he said when asked about swords which were found at mosques.

When asked whether the swords had been imported to cut grass, the Minister said, “No! Its not like that. Security forces are probing these incidents. We will let them arrive at a conclusion,”

He said he was not aware of the existence of the extremist Muslim religious group, National Thawheed Jamaath (NTJ) in the east and the mushrooming of the NTJ in Kandy in the last few years.

But he admitted that his Ministry has given permission to register 94 new mosques in the Kandy District alone since 2015.

Minister Haleem told the media that the comments made by SLFP General Secretary former minister Dayasiri Jayasekara at a news briefing on Monday to the effect that Muslim Religious Affairs Ministry had given permission to set up 50 NTJ centres in Kandy alone and another 400 islandwide after 2015 were untrue.

“The statement made by my friend Dayasiri Jayasekara is incorrect. I have not given permission to a single NTJ group to set up a centre in Kandy or any other part of the country. I know who gives this false information to him. Mr. Jayasekara should have checked on the authenticity of the information before speaking to the media on the matter,” he said. (Sandun A Jayasekera)

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