Lanka cancels Pak PM’s Parliament speech to avoid risking ties with India

In an effort to avoid confrontation with India, Sri Lanka has cancelled a scheduled speech of Prime Minister Imran Khan in Parliament.

According to a report titled 'Sri Lanka avoids clash with India by cancelling Khan's Parliament speech' by Dar Javed published in Colombo Gazette, the Colombo government cannot risk its relations with India when it is getting stuck in the Chinese debt-trap and India being the saviour for the world for distributing Covid-19 vaccines.

India has recently gifted 5 lakh doses of Covishield vaccines to Sri Lanka.

In past recent months, there have been anti-Muslim sentiments in Sri Lanka as Buddhist people have been protesting on issues such as animal sacrifices in mosques.

It is expected that Imran Khan would have used the Muslim card during his visit to Sri Lanka.

Javed said that the Pakistan PM in 2012 had supported the Taliban saying the terror activities were "holy war" that is justified by Islamic law. "He has used the UN General Assembly to rake up Muslim cause, which has often been perceived as interference in the internal matters of the other countries. In October 2020, he urged the Muslim-majority countries to protest after French President Emmanuel Macron expressed concerns over the murder of a teacher by an Islamist radical" the author stated.