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Poosari: Police prevent transport of animals to Munneswaram Kovil
Police yesterday intervened to prevent hundreds of devotees from transporting animals for sacrificial purposes to the Shri Badrakali Amman Kovil in Munneswaram, despite an assurance given by the temple trustees that the pooja had been called off.
Police set up barriers some 50 metres from the kovil and checked vehicles carrying fowl or goats. The devotees were prevented from taking the animals. However,a few animals were allowed to be taken into the temple following a protest by the temple trustees.
 The controversy over the animal sacrifice at the Munneswaram Kovil is continuing despite the assurance to the President that they will not be held. A kovil poosari is seen taking into the kovil a goat brought by a devotee, though police prevented hundreds of other devotees from bringing goats or fowl. Pic by Hiran Priyankara Jayasinghe. |
Chief Poosari K. Sivapathasundaram said President Rajapaksa’s Hindu Affairs Coordinator Bala Ravishankara Kurukkal and an official of the Human Rights Commission along with the Police held discussions with him on the issue of the proposed pooja.
He said he had given an assurance that the sacrificial ritual would not take place as scheduled yesterday because of a request by the President not to hold the event as the exposition of the Kapilavastu relics was taking place.
He said however, a request to allow devotees to bring the animals for the sacrifice was allowed by the police.
Ravishankara Kurukkal told the Sunday Times that he had received a complaint from the temple poosari that the police were preventing the devotees form transporting fowl and goats to the kovil.
“It is on an assurance given by the police that the people brought the animals. I will be submitting a report to the President,” he said. Deputy Inspector General I.M. Karunaratna said the police did not prevent devotees from bringing fowl or goats to the kovil.
Meanwhile, animal rights activist are continuing their campaign for a ban on animal sacrifice.
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