MONKS ALLEGEDLY SET FIRE TO LORRY AT SLAUGHTERHOUSE

The Dematagoda Police have launched an investigation to apprehend three Buddhist monks who were alleged to have fired a lorry that had arrived at the Dematagoda abattoir on Baseline Road last morning to collect beef.

It is reported that the three Buddhist monks had arrived at about 1.00 am, and parked their vehicle and thrown a can of petrol which they had brought with them on to the parked lorry and set it on fire and then driven away towards the Dematagoda Junction in their vehicle.

The watchman had alerted the police and doused the fire with the help of the fire brigade. However the lorry had been completely destroyed. The lorry had been parked about 30 metres from the abattoir when it was set on fire.

Police said no one had been arrested yet but that the CCTV cameras installed at the Dematagoda Junction would have recorded the incident and the vehicle and the culprits could be identified.

Police said that at present no cattle were being slaughtered at the abattoir but that beef was brought from outside to Colombo to the abattoir and examined there by the Veterinary doctor of the Colombo Municipality — after which it was distributed.

The burnt lorry belongs to a businessman from Pitakotte.

The chief prelate of Dhar-

The Ven Elle Gunawansa Thera expressed shock at this cowardly act and said that we had been shamed before the outside world

mayathanaya in Colombo 7, the Ven Elle Gunawansa Thera expressed shock at this cowardly act and said that we had been shamed before the outside world. He said no one had the right to take the law into his own hands. The venerable monk condemned this act and said that, at a time when the wounds of a cruel war were beginning to heal, misguided maniacs were resorting to this type of shameless act.