Suspected Tamil Tigers Set Fire to Toronto Buddhist Temple Again!

Suspected Tamil Tigers set fire to Toronto Mahaviharaya again

November 27, 2009  04:25 pm

Suspected Tamil Tigers of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Toronto have set fire to the Toronto Mahaviharaya in Scarborough again to ‘celebrate’ their dead leader’s birthday, reports the Adaderana correspondent in Canada.

 

Toronto Fire Brigade and Police Services have surrounded the Vihara and have doused the fire now. Earlier too the LTTE in Toronto set fire to the Mahaviharaya no sooner the Tigers were defeated in Sri Lanka in May this year.

 

Chief Incumbent of the Toronto Mahaviharaya Venerable Ahangama Rathanasiri Thera said that they are yet to assess the damage. “I head a noise at about 1.30 in the morning and saw smoke. Police told me that a Transport Board driver had informed the fire service regarding the fire,” he said.  

The Canadian government has followed the United Kingdom in announcing it will oppose Sri Lanka's bid to host the next summit of 53 Commonwealth countries.

“Canada will not be supporting Sri Lanka as the next host of the Commonwealth summit,” Prime Minister's Office spokesman Dimitri Soudas said.

It's a sharp rebuke to the Asian country's handling of a brutal and bloody war with Tamil Tiger insurgents that left 7,000 civilians dead and 150,000 displaced.

The measure will likely find favour with Tamil Canadian voters in the Greater Toronto Area, a vote-rich region the Conservatives must court to win a majority in the next election.

Arsonists tried to burn a Buddhist temple in West Hill for the second time in six months. Police said there was “very little migration of smoke” into the building Friday, but the fire department estimated damage at more than $10,000.

 

Firefighters arrived at 1:50 a.m. Friday, Nov. 27, to find heavy smoke and flames on the rear porch of the Toronto Mahavihara at 4698 Kingston Rd.

They were able to extinguish the fire before it could spread to the inside of the wooden temple, also known as the Toronto Buddhist Centre, which counts mainly Sinhalese immigrants from Sri Lanka among its congregation.

Police said the attackers lined up dozens of bottles filled with flammable liquid on the porch “spaced apart on the porch with the intention to accelerate the speed of the fire.”

Bandula Jayasekara, Sri Lanka’s consul general, inspected the damage Friday morning.

“It’s very sad,” he said, expressing the hope whoever attacked the temple would one day realize what they did was wrong.

Attacking any place of worship is “not acceptable in the civilized world,” Jayasekara said.