Sri Lankan police have arrested three senior members of a Hindu temple board in a Trincomalee village where tensions have been ongoing since Sinhalese monks claimed the village was the site of an ancient Buddhist shrine.
The chair, the secretary and the treasurer of the board of the Kuntrathur Mathalamalai Murugan temple in Soodaikuda were arrested on Monday by Muthur police who alleged that the board had carried out work using a bulldozer without obtaining permission from the GS (village officer).
Tensions have been high in the recently resettled village since police obtained a court order suspending restoration work on the historic temple, at the request of visiting Buddhist monks who claimed that the temple was built over an ancient Buddhist site.
