By Sarah Hannan A Buddhist monk on Friday (30 August) had threatened a woman for attiring herself in a saree that purportedly had prints of the Buddha’s face and demanded the area police to arrest her immediately for dishonouring Buddhism. The Police had complied with the monk’s request and taken the woman to the police station. They had issued a verbal warning before sending her home. Meanwhile, the video of the incident is now being widely shared online, and it is clearly audible that the monk was addressing the woman in a threatening tone, stating: “Be glad that you are a woman. If you were a man, I would thrash you to the ground.” The monk then goes on to instruct the police constable at sight that she needs to be remanded and produced before courts. The woman explains that she bought the saree from India and many women there wear it. In response, the monk inquires: “Aren’t you a Sri Lankan? Have you no knowledge about anything?” In tandem, another person standing next to the woman too advices her in Tamil to think before she wears something that has religious motifs. He goes on to tell her that she should go to the police station to settle the matter. The woman is then seen asking for forgiveness from the monk by touching his feet as she bows down. The monk refuses to forgive her and goes on to vent his anger, stating: “You need to remember that you cannot act on your free will and do whatever you please since this is a Sinhala Buddhist country. When this woman wears this and walks around, do you want us to just turn a blind eye towards her? While you people are allowed to wear whatever you please and walk about, are we allowed to wear something with Hindu religious motifs and walk about?” Following the exchange of words, the crowd is disbursed by the same person who advised the woman, and later, the woman had been taken to the police station. The Sunday Morning contacted the Trincomalee Police Station OIC to inquire whether they are in a capacity to take action against the monk who verbally reprimanded the woman. “When the incident took place, we mediated and settled the issue by bringing the woman to the police station, and then, we issued her a warning to not wear sarees with prints that resemble the Buddha’s face. Since she did not complain that she was inconvenienced by the monk’s words, we are not in a position to take action against him.” The OIC then informed us that he does not wish to provide further information over the phone and refused to provide his name when requested. The Trincomalee Police seem to have ignored the guidelines recommended by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka on arbitrary and illegal arrests made due to cultural misunderstandings or uncertainty and others due to suspicions expressed by members of the public. The guidelines shared with Sri Lanka Police are as follows: 1. Whenever an arrest is to be made, there should be solid evidence to form a reasonable suspicion pursuant to proper investigations. Arrests should not be made merely on hearsay. 2. Where cultural issues are involved, such as the identification of religious symbols or identifying contents written in an alien language, proper expert opinion should be obtained. 3. Where identification of chemical substances or contents of computer files or video footage or the like are involved, expert opinion should be obtained. 4. It is vital that the arrests are made not before but after receiving credible information based on expert analysis and opinion, and on reasonable suspicion. Following Friday’s incident and the video of the incident going viral on social media, many raised concerns on how minorities are constantly being cornered by the majority race.