The Illankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) on Sunday called for the immediate resignation of all Tamil members of the National People’s Power (NPP), including Trincomalee District MP and Deputy Foreign Minister Arun Hemachandra, over the government’s handling of a Buddha statue incident in Trincomalee.
Tensions erupted on Tuesday night when a group attempted to place a Buddha statue at a Dhamma school within a temple in the district. Police were deployed to manage the situation, and the statue was later removed under instructions from Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala.
ITAK General Secretary M.A. Sumanthiran, in a social media post, accused the government of succumbing to “majoritarian pressures” and said initial hopes that the removal reflected impartial governance had been “quickly dashed.”
The party said Minister Wijepala’s statement in Parliament—that the statue was removed solely for security reasons and would be reinstalled—exposed the administration’s “true intentions.”
ITAK described the NPP government as a “racist, Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist force” and argued that Tamil representatives could no longer remain in the government under such circumstances.
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