Govt. considering ban on burqa and niqab

With interrogation of suspects and the other evidence that has surfaced pointing to the involvement of a large number of women in Easter Sunday attacks, the government has yesterday initiated moves in view of a possible ban on the burqa and niqab in Sri Lanka, a highly placed government source said. 

He said the government was planning to implement the ban in consultation with mosque authorities while several ministers had discussed this matter with President Maithripala Sirisena.   
It was pointed out that the burqa and the niqab were never a part of the traditional attire of Muslim women in Sri Lanka until the gulf war in the early 1990s which saw extremist elements introducing this garb to Muslim women.   

Defence sources had revealed that several female accomplices involved in the incidents in Dematagoda had escaped wearing burqas.