Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, making a special statement at the Temple Trees today, said that any person found inciting communal disharmony would be arrested and produced before court.

“I am a proud Sinhala-Buddhist,” the Prime Minister said. “I am also a proud Sri Lankan. As a Sri Lankan I respect all other religions and cultures. Those who do not respect other religions and cultures are not true Sri Lankans,” he said.

He said if need be, the Parliament would formulate new laws to prosecute those inciting communal disharmony by engaging in ethnic or religious violence and hate speech.

The Prime Minister said, furthermore, the Police had been ordered to investigate the issue of several Muslim establishments and religious places being burned in the recent past.