The Sri Lankan government has announced a ban on burqa, among other measures, to clamp down on Islamic radicalism in the country. The directives came days after a presidential inquiry commission report on 2019 Easter Bombings was tabled in parliament. 

According to a report in Colombopage, Sarath Weerasekara, the Sri Lankan Minister of Public Security, on Friday signed a cabinet paper banning the burqa in the country. 

Calling the burqa a “symbol of religious extremism”, the minister said, “A group of religious extremists had introduced the tradition of wearing the burqa in the past and that Muslim women never wore such burqa before in the country.”

The ministry also plans to close down thousands of madrasas in the country. Those madrasas, he claimed, are not registered in line with the national education policy. 

The recently tabled presidential inquiry report in the 2019 Easter Bombings has also contained several measures to check the spread of Islamic radicalism in the country. 259 people, mostly minority Christians, were killed in the serial blasts that took place in 2019 on the occasion of Easter Sunday.  
 
Weerasekara also said the government is taking steps to ensure that every child between the age of 5 to 15 would be educated according to the National Education Policy.