New Delhi

Sri Lanka will become the first Asian country to impose a ban on the burqa, the face-covering garment mostly worn by some Muslim women, for the reasons of national security.

The Sri Lanka government today approved the proposal by Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekera at the meeting of the cabinet of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, its weekly meeting on Tuesday.

Weerasekera announced this on his Facebook page.

In his recommendation, Weerasekara has called burqa a ‘sign of religious extremism” and said a ban would improve national security.

Colombo had temporarily banned the burqa in 2019 after the Easter Sunday suicide bombings across six locations in the country in which more than 260 people had died and as many left injured.

The blasts were attributed to some local Muslim radical groups owing allegiance to the ISIL (ISIS), These groups were blamed and many persons were arrested in the aftermath of the bombings that shook the island nation.

The ISIS had claimed the bombings in Sri Lanka were in retaliation to Christ Church bombings in New Zealand in which alone attacked had killed people in a mosque.

Muslims make up about 9 per cent of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people, with Buddhists accounting for more than 70 per cent. Ethnic-minority Tamils, who are mainly Hindus, comprise about 15 per cent.