Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP and media spokesperson, M.A. Sumanthiran has promised to take the necessary steps to help restore the full worship rights of Hindus in Kurunthur Malai, Mullaitivu.
The native place of worship of Tamils located in the Thannimurippu area, has become a site of dispute after Sinhala Buddhists occupied it from Tamil Hindu worshippers. The temple is of historical significance for the Tamil people, but like many ancient monuments in the Tamil homeland has been subject to attack from Sinhala Buddist colonisation.
Sumanthiran insisted that despite an agreement being reached with the Mullaitivu Magistrate's Court a few years ago, in February the Department of Archaeology, alongside State Minister Vitdyra Wickramanayaka, removed a Hindu shrine at the Kurunthur Malai Athi Ayan Temple and replaced it with a Buddhist statue.
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Since Rajapaksa has come to power, he has appointed a Presidential Task Force for “Archaeological Heritage Management in the Eastern Province”. This task force, comprised entirely of Sinhala council, has been criticised as a means of pursuing “state-sponsored Sinhala colonisation”. It has further been supported by extremist monks such as Panamure Thilakawansha who is placed to “identify and safeguard Sinhala-Buddhist 'historical sites', at the expense of Tamil or Muslim sites.”
Thilakawansha is “notorious for his Sinhalisation efforts in and around Pulmoaddai, Trincomalee.”
Read more from PEARL here: Sinhalisation of Pulmoaddai
Sumanthiran met with Thurairasa Ravikaran, a former member of the Northern Provincial Council, to raise a formal legal complaint on Friday last week.
