COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Buddhist mobs attacked several churches in Sri Lanka in early April, threatening to kill a pastor in the southern province of Hambanthota and ransacking a Methodist church building in Colombo.
On April 8, four Buddhist extremists approached the home of Pastor Pradeep Kumara in Weeraketiya, calling for him to come out and threatening to kill him. The pastor said his wife, at home alone with their two children, phoned him immediately but by the time he returned, the men had left. Half an hour later, Kumara said, the leader of the group phoned him and again threatened to kill him if he did not leave the village by the following morning.
Later that night, the group leader returned to the house and ordered the pastor to come out, shouting that if he had brought his gun he would have shot him.
Earlier, on April 5, another group of men broke into the 150-year-old Pepiliyana Methodist Church in Colombo after congregants concluded an Easter procession.
Witnesses said they saw them load goods into a white van parked outside the church early the next morning.
“They removed everything, including valuable musical instruments, a computer, Bibles, hymnbooks and all the church records,” said Pastor Surangika Fernando.
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