Sri Lanka bans face veils after Easter bombings

Colombo: Muslim women in Sri Lanka will not be allowed to wear any form of face veils in public from Monday under new regulations announced by President Maithripala Sirisena who used emergency powers in the wake of the Easter Sunday bombings.

The new regulation banning any form of face covering was announced by the President on Sunday, a week after the coordinated blasts hit three churches and three luxury hotels, killing over 250 people and inuring more than 500 others.

It specifically mentions "any face garment which hinders identification".

"The ban is to ensure national security... No one should obscure their faces to make identification difficult," Sirisena's office said in a statement.

He took steps under the emergency regulation to prohibit the use of face coverings of all sorts which is an obstacle to ensure the identity of the people and a threat to national and public security.

The order clarifies that the key criterion for establishing the identity of a person is the need to clearly expose the face.

The President has taken this decision to establish a peaceful and cohesive society which does not inconvenience any community people as well as ensure national security.

The presidential communique, however, makes no mention of niqab and burqa.

The government was contemplating the move to ban both niqab and burka. They sought cooperation from the Muslim clerics some of whom issued statements that both must be refrained from wearing in view of the current volatile security situation.

"We have permitted people to leave their homes with faces uncovered as means to cooperate with the security forces," Fazil Farook, a spokesman for Jamiyyathul Ulema, or the Muslim theologists body, said.

There has been a public demand to ban the niqab and burka following the bomb attacks.

Hijab, niqab, burka are different kinds of coverings worn by Muslim women all over the world.

Hijab covers the head and neck but leaves the face clear. Niqab is a veil for the face that leaves the area around the eyes clear and burka is one-piece veil that covers the entire face, leaving just a net screen to see through.

Muslims account for 10 per cent of the population and are the second-largest minority after Hindus. Around seven per cent of Sri Lankans are Christians.

Nine suicide bombers carried out a series of devastating blasts that tore through three churches and three luxury hotels on the Easter Sunday, killing 253 people.

It was reported that at least three women suicide bombers had been involved.

The Islamic State claimed the attacks, but the government has blamed local Islamist extremist group National Thowheeth Jamaath (NTJ) for the attacks.

Sri Lanka on Saturday banned the NTJ and a splinter group linked to the ISIS.

A total of 106 suspects, including a Tamil medium teacher and a school principal, have been arrested in connection with the Easter Sunday blasts.

According to Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry, the number of foreign nationals who have been identified as killed remained at 40, including 11 from India.

Sri Lanka has a population of 21 million which is a patchwork of ethnicities and religions, dominated by the Sinhalese Buddhist majority.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Monday suspended defiant police chief Pujith Jayasundara and named his successor as well as a new defence secretary as part of the revamping of the security establishment following the country's worst terror attack.

Sirisena on Friday said that Jayasundara had resigned but he never sent the letter and remained in his official residence, according to officials.

Senior Deputy Inspector General C D Wickremaratne has been appointed as the acting police chief while former Inspector General N K Illangakoon named as an advisor to the Defence Ministry, according to the President's office.

Police chief Jayasundara was asked to quit along with defence ministry secretary Hemasiri Fernando, taking responsibility for the intelligence failure that led to the bombings.

Jayasundara, however, refused to heed Sirisena's call to resign following April 21 coordinated blasts on three churches and three luxury hotels.

The police chief in Sri Lanka can only be removed through a parliamentary procedure and Sirisena's action suspending him is the first step towards that, the officials said.

The attacks carried out by suicide bombers came in spite of early warnings and the security establishment's failure to take preventive action has come under severe criticism.

Sirisena, who also keeps the defence portfolio with him, said he wanted to revamp the security system and his defence ministry secretary Fernando resigned promptly on his request on Thursday.

Deputy Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Nalin Bandara said a motion to remove the police chief will be tabled in Parliament within this week, Sri Lanka Mirror reported.

Noting that the motion will be tabled on the agreement of all government MPs, he hoped to get the backing of opposition MPs as well, it said.

President Sirisena last week said that intelligence failures led to the blasts, the country's worst terror attack.

Meanwhile, the police chief has said that he has done nothing wrong and that he would resign if the defence minister resigns as well.

Nine suicide bombers carried out a series of devastating blasts that tore through three churches and three luxury hotels on the Easter Sunday, killing 253 people and injuring over 500 people.

The Islamic State claimed the attacks, but the government has blamed local Islamist extremist group National Thowheeth Jamaath (NTJ) for the attacks.

Sri Lanka on Saturday banned the NTJ and a splinter group linked to the ISIS. A total of 106 suspects, including a Tamil medium teacher and a school principal, have been arrested in connection with the Easter Sunday blasts. According to Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry, the number of foreign nationals who have been identified as killed remained at 40, including 11 from India.