The Sri Lankan army have begun constructing a 'Dhamma school' - Buddhist religious school - inside the Bhadrakali Amman kovil premises in Trincomalee, as Sinhala colonisation of the North-East continues.
Earlier this year, the Sri Lankan government announced that Rs 22 million had been allocated for the development of Dhamma schools in the North-East.
According to the Sri Lankan Army's official website, the 6 Gajaba Regiment troops have undertaken the construction, while the "233 brigade will supervise the project until its completion."
The North-East has come under decades of intense Sinhalisation and colonisation from state sponsored settlement schemes.
In recent years, the state has used the guise of ‘archaeology’ to take over vast areas of lands in the North-East, and mark them as ‘Buddhist sites'.