A gang of Buddhist monks viciously beat up a Christian student in Sri Lanka on 4 August, according to Bishop Asiri Perera , the president of the country’s Methodist Church.
The attack took place immediately after a Sunday worship service held at a home in the town of Mahiyanganaya, in central Sri Lanka.
Three monks targeted the head, stomach and spine of their young victim, a Bible college student, during the attack, said Perera.
Perera added that the monks belonged to “a notorious extremist group that promotes religious disharmony and conflict in this country”.
“I assure all Buddhists of Sri Lanka that we Christians will remain calm and peaceful in the midst of the persecution we face today in Sri Lanka. I humbly appeal to you to be kind towards the Christians who live with you,” Perera said on Facebook.
The student was so terrified after the beating that he rode his motorcycle more than 100 miles back to his Bible college. He was then admitted to a hospital where he is recovering from his injuries. No arrests have been reported at the time of writing.
Perera has raised concerns about police inaction following the attack, saying that Christians are not being treated as equal citizens in their own country.
He added that he is still “patiently waiting ” for a response from the president of Sri Lanka over a previous attack against a church prayer centre in Anuradhapura on 14 April 2019. Perera was present at a Palm Sunday worship service there when a mob of youths pelted the building with stones and fire crackers.
Sri Lanka has a history of extremist Buddhists targeting Christians . Christian leaders also condemned attacks by extremist Buddhists on Muslims that followed the Easter Sunday bombings by Islamic State in Sri Lanka , on 21 April 2019. Police arrested 23 people on 14 May 2019 in connection with attacks by Buddhist mobs on mosques, Muslim-owned businesses and homes in Sri Lanka’s north-west.
