Deputy Foreign Minister said he intervened after seeing security guards chasing unmarried couples from the Independence Monument on Sunday Deputy Foreign Minister Said He Intervened After Sunday Watching Security Guards Dropping Unmarried Couples From Independence Monument.
Sri Lankan government fired security official after his teams chased couples holding hands at a public Colombo site
In Sri Lanka, a conservative Buddhist country, this decision marks a significant departure from the previous government which regularly allowed the police to arrest young lovers kissing in public.
Deputy Foreign Minister Harsha de Silva said he intervened after seeing security guards chasing unmarried couples from the Independence Square monument on Sunday .
“Arrogant behavior”
He spoke with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who decided to fire the director of these security guards.
“Their leader was fired. The guards are going to be sent elsewhere with the hope that they will not show the same arrogant behavior , ” said de Silva.
The couple who filmed the guards said they were told that only married couples with children could sit at the monument, built to mark the country’s independence in 1948.
The largely conservative Sri Lankan society frowns on expressions of affection in public, including by married couples.
“Lovers under umbrellas”
The Sri Lankan police are known for their arrests of “lovers under umbrellas” who take refuge behind parasols installed to protect from the sun along a walk in the Sri Lankan capital.
The decision taken by the government suggests a change in the attitude of power compared to the previous regime led by Mahinda Rajapakse, defeated in the presidential election in January 2015.
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