Sri Lankan police confront protesting monks outside the Presidential Secretariat on 15 October. Photograph: Ada Derana
Sinhala Buddhist monks demanding the release of Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara, the extremist monk whose Bodu Bala Sena has led hate campaigns, have ended their overnight sit-in outside the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo and dismantled their shelters, after a court barred 54 people, including monks and opposition politicians, from remaining there.
The Fort Magistrate, Pasan Amarasena, issued the order on 16 October on an application by the Sri Lankan police to stop the protest in front of the Secretariat, which lies within a high security zone. It was made under section 106(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure Act, which allows magistrates to order the removal of a public nuisance. Those named include Ulapane Sumangala Thera, one of the leaders of the march, and the former minister Udaya Gammanpila .
Sri Lankan police read out the order and served it on the monks that morning. Some protesters crumpled up and threw away copies of the order after it was handed to them, a reporter at the scene said, before the group began dismantling the temporary huts it had put up beside Galle Road.
By Friday afternoon the monks had removed their shelters and left the site , and were holding talks at the Ministry of Buddhasasana , Religious and Cultural Affairs.
Sri Lankan police read out the court order to the protesters on 16 October. Photograph: IBC Tamil
The protesters reached the Secretariat at Galle Face on the evening of 15 October, at the end of a six-day march from Kandy that began at the Temple of the Tooth on 10 October.
Members of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), Sarvajana Balaya, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and the United National Party (UNP) joined the march, along with Wimal Weerawansa and Gammanpila .
“Today is our final day. The Maha Sangha came from all four directions not to return empty-handed,” Sumangala said on arrival. “We are prepared to settle this matter one way or another today.”
Monks and supporters outside the Presidential Secretariat on the night of 15 October. Photograph: Daily Mirror
The Secretary to the President, Nandika Sanath Kumanayake, met a delegation of monks, who asked for what they described as a technical flaw in the 2019 presidential pardon granted to Gnanasara to be rectified, and for a timeline. He told them a definitive answer could not be given .
An official told the monks a decision would be made within a month , but they demanded a specific date. The Chief of Presidential Staff, Prabath Chandrakeerthi, later told them the Sri Lankan president had agreed to let the government proceed in line with legal procedures and the Constitution , but could not give a timeframe, and the monks said they would stay until their demand was met.
Monks confronted police as officers moved to take down a canopy they had put up outside the Secretariat. The group blocked part of the road until around 11pm before moving to the pavement opposite.
Monks during the sit-in opposite the Presidential Secretariat. Photograph: Ada Derana
The campaign, called “Justice for the Robe”, began as a protest against the prisons department’s decision to produce Gnanasara in court in prison clothing , and has since become a demand for a presidential pardon.
The Sri Lankan president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, told senior monks on 8 October that he would not order officials to bypass prison laws .
“In such a situation, the law is set aside and it becomes my law. My personal wishes should not become the law,” he said.
The Sri Lankan prime minister, Harini Amarasuriya, said during a visit to the Malwathu and Asgiri chapters in Kandy on 15 October that the Sri Lankan president would take an appropriate decision at the right time on a pardon, and that as the courts had already ruled, any further steps should follow their advice.
Ulapane Sumangala Thera, one of the leaders of the march. Photograph: Sri Lanka Mirror
Gnanasara has led the Bodu Bala Sena since 2012, and the group has been accused of inciting anti-Muslim violence, including the 2014 riots in Aluthgama. In 2021 the then Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed him to head a presidential task force on “One Country, One Law”.
He was convicted of contempt of court in 2018 after disrupting proceedings at the Homagama Magistrate’s Court in the case over the disappearance of the journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda, and intimidating his wife, Sandya Ekneligoda. The pardon granted by Maithripala Sirisena in 2019 was annulled by the Supreme Court last month, and he was arrested at a forest monastery in Kalutara on 3 October.
The Court of Appeal has fixed 22 October to consider petitions challenging the decision to remove Gnanasara’s robes in prison.
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