Buddhist monks who had been refusing food and water near the Ruwanweli Maha Seya in Anuradhapura were taken into police custody on Thursday, after a second group arrived at the protest site and a confrontation followed.
Ven. Balangoda Kassapa Thero is among those detained. The fasting monks had been demanding the withdrawal of a proposed Sacred City development gazette.
What happened
A tense situation developed at the site on Thursday when another group arrived where the monks were holding a satyagraha and a fast-unto-death, Hiru News reported at 12.22 p.m. Security personnel intervened to control the situation, and police protection was deployed at the location.
In a later filing at 1.17 p.m., Hiru identified members of the arriving group as including Rajanganaye Saddharatana, who it says was expelled from the monastic order.
By 1.37 p.m. the monks themselves had been detained. Hiru reported that four monks, Ven. Balangoda Kassapa Thero among them, were taken into police custody after the incident, and that the platform on which they had been fasting was removed from the site.
The Daily Mirror reported at 1.55 p.m. that Ven. Balangoda Kassapa Thero and two other monks — three in total — were taken into custody following the confrontation.
The two newsrooms do not agree on the number detained. Hiru says four, the Daily Mirror three. Neither reconciles the difference, and this report does not resolve it.
Two conditions, not one
The fast began on Wednesday morning, The Island reported. The monks set out two conditions for ending it, and the second is absent from Thursday’s filings.
The first is withdrawal of the proposed draft Anuradhapura Sacred Area Development Plan. The second is the release of Ven. Galagodaatte Gnanasara, in line with assurances the monks say were given to them by the four Mahanayake Theras.
“We left Viharamahadevi Park at the request of the four Mahanayake Theras. That did not mean that our campaign to secure the release of Ven. Gnanasara had ended,” Ven. Balangoda Kassapa said before beginning the fast, according to The Island. He said the monks would take neither food nor water, including herbal drinks, and asked the public not to offer them even a bottle of water.
The Island adds two further elements of context: the fast began against the backdrop of an order issued by the Anuradhapura Magistrate on Saturday directing the group to vacate the premises immediately, and while Ven. Kassapa had been summoned before the Colombo Crimes Division over a media statement alleging he was assaulted during the earlier Viharamahadevi Park satyagraha.
Background
The satyagraha was launched at the dansala premises near the stupa on Saturday, 7 November. This desk reported the first arrests that day, and the protest has continued through a court order to vacate and the remanding of one participant.
A note on the headlines
Hiru’s two Thursday headlines describe “thugs carrying sticks” breaking into the site and the location becoming “a battlefield.” Neither claim appears in the body text of either filing, which says only that another group arrived and that a heated situation developed. This report follows the reported facts rather than the headlines. No outlet reached for this story describes weapons, injuries or the nature of the physical contact.
Update: monks admitted to hospital
Later on Thursday, police said the monks arrested while on the fast-unto-death — four of them, including Ven. Balangoda Kassapa Thero — had been admitted to Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital for treatment, Hiru News reported.
The filing is brief and does not describe their condition, say whether they have resumed taking food or water, or indicate whether they remain in custody while hospitalised.
It does, however, bear on the count. Hiru has now given the figure as four in both its custody report and this one, while the Daily Mirror reported three monks arrested. Neither newsroom has reconciled the difference, and this desk continues to attribute each figure to the outlet that reported it.
Not reported
No filing gives the grounds for the arrests, or whether the monks are to be produced before a court. None says what has become of the fast itself now that the monks are in custody and under treatment. None reports a response from the government, the Department of Archaeology or the Mahanayake Theras, and none explains why the second group came to the site or whether anyone from it was detained.
