COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s Muslims demonstrated in Colombo on Tuesday for an end to forced cremations of Covid-19 victims as Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived on an official visit.

The demonstrators carried a mock janazah, denouncing the Sri Lankan government’s policy of banning burials of virus victims disregarding their funeral rites.

The demonstration was aimed at the visit of Imran Khan as two weeks ago he had weighed in on the plight of Muslims in Sri Lanka.

The prime minister had welcomed an announcement by his Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa on Feb 10 that burials would be allowed, but a day later Colombo backtracked and said there would be no change in the cremation-only policy.

“Respect Prime Minister’s statement and allow burials,” said a banner carried by the demonstrators who assembled at an open space in front of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office.

His government has rejected international pleas and recommendations from its own experts to allow Muslims to bury their dead in line with Islamic custom.

The government first banned burials in April amid concerns — which experts say are baseless — by influential Buddhist monks that burying bodies could contaminate groundwater and spread the virus.

In December, the authorities ordered the forced cremation of 19 Muslim Covid-19 victims, including a baby, after their families refused to claim their bodies from a hospital morgue.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2021