The National Bhikkhu Front in a statement issued yesterday condemned both, the Prayer meeting conducted by a religious group at Vihara Mahadevi Park on October 31, in which two participants died, and the subsequent conduct of the Jathika Hela Urumaya, which it claimed was responsible for the attack on the office of the religious organisation concerned at Koswatte.

The National Bhikkhu Front said that it was deplorable that promptaction was not taken to dispatch the two women who had fallen sick at the prayer meeting to hospital. "Religious fanatics had even prevented the sick women being given water. We propose that these fanatics be brought before the law and punished", the National Bhikkhu Front said in the statement.

Referring to the subsequent attack on a prayer meeting hall at Koswatte, the Bhikkhu Front said that it had spearheaded by two stalwarts of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU).

Commenting on the behaviour of the two JHU monks, the Bhikkhu Front demanded the Government to reveal its position on the JHU’s behaviour since the party was part of the Government.

"There is hardly any difference between the fundamentalism of those who were responsible for the prayer meeting and the boorish behaviour of the JHU. We call upon the people not to be carried away by the actions of these fundamentalists" the National Bhikkhu Front said.