Madrasas in Sri Lanka should be regulated by the Muslim Religious and Cultural Affairs Ministry and not by the Education Ministry, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said, days after the country’s worst terror attack killed over 250 people.
Authorities are on high-alert in the country after ninesuicide bombers carried out a series of devastating blasts that tore throughthree churches and three luxury hotels on the Easter Sunday on April 21,killing 253 people and injuring about 500.
The Islamic State terror group claimed the attacks, but thegovernment has blamed local Islamist extremist group National Thowheeth Jamaath(NTJ) for the attacks.
Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam said thatWickremesinghe has stressed the need for the Muslim Religious and CulturalAffairs Ministry to look into the regulation of Madrasas.
“The Prime Minister wanted the Muslim Religious andCultural Affairs Ministry to deal so as to prevent any controversy,”Kariyawasam was quoted as saying by Daily Mirror newspaper.
Earlier, Kariyawasam had said that the Education Ministrywould take steps to regulate them.
Some 800 Foreign Islamic clerics were engaged in religiousteaching at Madrasas, Megapolis and Western Development Minister PataliChampika Ranawaka said, adding that they had arrived on tourist visas andtherefore should be deported.
Sri Lanka has a population of 21 million which is apatchwork of ethnicities and religions, dominated by the Sinhalese Buddhistmajority.
Muslims account for 10 per cent of the population and arethe second-largest minority after Hindus. Around seven per cent of Sri Lankansare Christians.