COLOMBO: Representatives of Sri Lanka’s Muslims say they have lost hope that the Pakistani prime minister would take up their concerns in meetings with the island country's top officials next week, as Colombo on Wednesday canceled Imran Khan's planned parliament address.
Khan is slated to arrive in Sri Lanka on Feb. 23 on a two-day visit in which he will hold talks with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and attend an investors' conference. He was expected to address the Lankan parliament on Feb. 24.
Muslims make up nearly 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s population of 22 million, which is predominantly Buddhist. The community's representatives say they have been receiving complaints of discrimination from across the country, especially since Easter Sunday attacks 2019, when reportedly Daesh-inspired militants killed over 250 people in churches and hotels across the country in Easter Sunday attacks in 2019.
The parliament's spokesman, Shan Wijetunge, told Arab News that the speech had been canceled over Khan's "tight schedule." Meanwhile, the press attache of the Pakistani mission in Colombo, Kalsoom Quaiser Jilani, said the embassy had no "no official information about this matter."
"Muslim community had a lot of hopes for Khan to address some of their issues," Sri Lanka Muslim Council president N. M. Ameen told Arab News.
He said that Imran Khan’s parliament address would have given legislators from all political and religious factions a chance to interact with him, but now "he will meet only the government officials, where he would come to know one side of the story."
In recent years, Buddhist hard-liners, led by the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) or “Buddhist Power Force,” have stoked hostility against Muslims.
