London Kingsbury Buddhist Temple Arsoned and Vandalised by Tamil Tigers in UK

(September 27, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) It was only last Saturday, 20th September 2008 that President Mahinda Rajapakse paid an unnannounced visit to the Kingsbury Buddhist Temple in North London, whilst he was there briefly in London en-route to attend the UN summit in New York.

It is reliably learnt that in the early hours of Friday 26th September, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam populary known as the "Tamil Tigers" in the UK launched a surprise attack on the Temple in retaliation to President Mahinda Rajapakse's visit the previous week.

Two vehicles parked outside the temple on the driveway were said to be vandalised and arsoned. The Kingsbury and Alperton areas are very densly populated by the Sri Lankan Tamil community with a substantial number of pro-LTTE sympathisers.

Till date the temple has never fallen victim to vandalism and the local Metropolitan Police including CID and the Anti-Terrorism branch are said to be investigating. This inciodent is being treated as serious as the Buddhist priests who are part of the Kingsbury Temple also live at the premises and the incident could have turned into a potential multiple murder enquiry.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are reknowned to have arsoned and vandalised properties belonging to anti-LTTE members of the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora in the UK and accross Europe. The LTTE remains as a designated Terrorist group and banned in the UK under the Terrorism Act. - Sri Lanka Guardian