![\"Sri-Lanka-to-lift-ban-on-burial-of-Muslim-coronavirus-victims-rapidnews-rapid-news\"](\"https:\/\/dailyrapidnews.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Sri-Lanka-to-lift-ban-on-burial-of-Muslim-coronavirus-victims-rapidnews-rapid-news.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSri Lanka\u00a0will allow the burial of Covid-19 victims, the country\u2019s premier said on Wednesday, following months of outcry over a ban.<\/p>\n
In response to a question raised by lawmaker S M Marikkar, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said in parliament the bodies of virus victims will be allowed to be buried, according to the ColomboPage news website.<\/p>\n
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In March last year, the Health Ministry had said that the burial of the\u00a0coronavirus\u00a0victims could lead to the virus spread. It said the bodies of the deceased, irrespective of their religion, would therefore be cremated.<\/p>\n
However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) stressed that cremation is a \u201cmatter of cultural choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a common myth that persons who have died of a communicable disease should be cremated, but this is not true,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
Non-governmental organisations and minority groups in\u00a0Sri Lanka filed petitions with the Supreme Court, pleading to stop the cremation of Muslim bodies. However, the court dismissed all such petitions.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Imran Khan, who will be visiting\u00a0Sri Lanka\u00a0later this month, welcomed the lifting of the ban that came ahead of a UN Human Rights Council session starting as of Feb. 15.<\/p>\n
“We welcome Sri Lankan PM Mahinda Rajapaksa’s assurance given in Sri Lankan Parliament today allowing Muslims to bury those who died from Covid-19,” the premier on his official Twitter handle.<\/p>\n
Since the beginning of the pandemic,\u00a0Sri Lanka\u00a0has reported 71,211\u00a0coronavirus\u00a0cases, including 370 deaths and 65,053 recoveries, according to data compiled by the US-based Johns Hopkins University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sri Lanka\u00a0will allow the burial of Covid-19 victims, the country\u2019s premier said on Wednesday, following<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n