SRI JAYAWARDENEPURA KOTTE – Sri Lanka has taken a significant step towards banning the burka and other face coverings in public, on grounds of national security.
Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekara told the BBC that he had signed a cabinet order which now needs parliamentary approval.
Officials expected the ban to be implemented very soon.
The move comes nearly two years after a wave of co-ordinated attacks on hotels and churches on Easter Sunday.
Suicide bombers targeted Catholic churches and tourist hotels, killing more than 250 people in April 2019. The Islamic State militant group said it had carried out the attacks.
As the authorities tracked down the militants, an emergency short-term ban on face coverings was implemented in the majority-Buddhist nation.
Now the government is moving to re-introduce it on a permanent basis.(BBC)
