Leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress Rauff Hakeem says that that the Prime Minister’s pledge not to relocate the Muslim mosque in Dambulla was not the ultimate solution to the issue. He was speaking at a media briefing in Colombo this morning (April 30).
Noting that this was not a question of searching for a plot of land, Minister Hakeem emphasized that no one expects the government to provide an alternate plot of land if it was decided to relocate the mosque.
He further said that all parties agreed that the mosque in question had been there since 1963.
He said that under such a backdrop, the series of incidents that followed over the removal had caused a complicated issue and wreaked confusion.
SLM