
A Sri Lankan monk set himself on fire on Friday to protest the slaughter of cattle, in the country’s first attempt at self-immolation by a monk, police said.
The monk doused himself with a flammable liquid and set himself ablaze near a temple in the central town of Kandy during an important Buddhist festival, police said.
“Policemen near the temple doused the flames and rushed the monk to hospital,” police spokesman Buddhika Siriwardena said.
“Just before setting himself alight, he shouted that his action was to protest the slaughter of cattle.”
The monk was in a critical condition in a Colombo hospital, police said.
The protest came as the country celebrated Wesak, the commemoration of the birth, enlightenment and the death of the Buddha, in the Buddhist-majority country which marks the occasion with two days of holidays.