Colombo, Sept 16 (ANI): Buddhist monks have reportedly destroyed a Muslim shrine in Sri Lanka.
This incident took place last Saturday in Anuradhapura, an ancient Buddhist city and UNESCO world heritage site, the BBC reports. Sri Lankan news website showed photographs of a crowd including monks, apparently destroying a small structure while some others waved Buddhist flags and burnt a green Muslim flag.
Meanwhile, a monk who admitted to have masterminded the demolition of the Muslim shrine, has said that he arranged a gathering of around 100 monks, including some from other Asian countries, to take action because local Muslims were allegedly trying to convert the shrine into a mosque despite new constructions being illegal on this site with its many Buddhist temples.
He said local government officials arrived and said they would remove the shrine within three days, but the crowd said "we cannot wait" and proceeded to destroy the structure.
Some witnesses have alleged that the incident took place in the presence of police, but they did not do much to prevent it.
However, the police denied they were present there.
"This is a fabricated story. No media in Sri Lanka has reported this and we don't have any police report. If this happened there would have been a complaint. We have not received any complaint," a police spokesman said. (ANI)
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