Update, 9 November — one of the people arrested on Saturday has been named and charged. He is Prasad Susantha Jayasiri, known as “Daham Prasad”, remanded until 16 November. See Update, 9 November at the foot of this article.
Update, 8 November — the purpose of the protest is now reported, and the monks have defied a court order to leave. The satyagraha is against the proposed Anuradhapura Sacred City Plan. See the update section below. The original 7 November report follows.
Two people were arrested on Saturday after police removed a group that included several Buddhist monks from the dansala grounds near the Ruwanweli Maha Seya in Anuradhapura, where the group had attempted to begin a satyagraha.
A tense situation developed at the site after the attempt to launch the protest, the Daily Mirror reported. Tensions escalated when police officers arrived and removed the group, monks included, from the premises.
Hiru News reported that two people were taken into custody during the heated situation that arose while a group of monks was holding the satyagraha in the dansala area near the stupa.
The two accounts agree on the location, the presence of monks, the attempted satyagraha and the confrontation with police. Hiru alone reports the arrests.
What the photographs show
Hiru’s filing carries a photograph of the incident. It shows a saffron-robed monk in the foreground with his arm extended toward officers, uniformed police alongside personnel in camouflage fatigues, and a man in white being lifted into a dark van — an arrest or removal in progress. Riot helmets are visible among the officers at the edge of the frame, and a crowd of onlookers stands behind, many in the white dress customary at Buddhist sacred sites.
The image is consistent with both written accounts, and independently confirms the physical nature of the confrontation that the word “tension” in the Daily Mirror’s headline leaves vague.
What neither newsroom reports
Neither filing says what the satyagraha was about. That is the central gap in this story.
Neither names the monks involved or the organisation behind the protest, identifies the two people arrested or what they are accused of, states which police division responded, or says whether the group had sought permission to protest at the site. Neither gives the number of people involved or the time of day. No police statement is quoted, and no comment from the temple administration or the Atamasthanadhipathi appears in either report.
Context — and a connection this desk is not asserting
A satyagraha by Buddhist monks was a running story in Colombo through late October. Monks camped at Viharamahadevi Park from 16 October demanding the release of the imprisoned Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera, and suspended that protest on 25 October after the Mahanayake Theros of the Three Nikayas said they were intervening with the government.
Prosecutions arising from that encampment began this month. On 4 November a Colombo magistrate ordered arrests over an unlicensed sound system and the obstruction of municipal officials at the park, and closed the related injunction proceeding on the basis that the protest had ended.
Neither of Saturday’s filings links the Anuradhapura attempt to that campaign, and this desk does not assert a connection. The two share a form of protest and the involvement of monks; nothing in either report establishes common organisers, common demands or any continuity between them. Anuradhapura is roughly 200 kilometres from Colombo, and the Ruwanweli Maha Seya is one of the island’s most significant Buddhist sites, where protest actions draw attention for reasons independent of any particular campaign.
Update — 8 November: the protest’s purpose, and a defied court order
Two Sunday filings answer the question the original reports left open.
The satyagraha is against the proposed Anuradhapura Sacred City Plan. It is led by Ven. Balangoda Kassapa Thera, and will continue until the government withdraws the gazette notification relating to the plan, the Daily Mirror reported.
The court order
On an application by the Anuradhapura Headquarters Police, the Anuradhapura Magistrate’s Court ordered Ven. Balangoda Kassapa Thera, a layman named Udith Nishantha and others to leave the site by 2.00 p.m. on Saturday, Hiru News reported.
The order required the group to take down temporary tents and vacate the sacred precinct, including the Ruwanweli Maha Seya and the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi, and directed that no damage be caused to archaeological monuments in the sacred area.
The monks and laypeople did not comply. They remained at the site overnight and were still there on Sunday morning.
What triggered Saturday’s confrontation
The Daily Mirror reports that tensions escalated on Saturday afternoon when protesters tried to construct an elevated structure at the site, and police arrived to stop it.
Hiru’s account adds the link to the two arrests in the original report: a heated situation arose out of an argument between two individuals, and the confrontation on the satyagraha grounds developed when police moved to arrest those two.
A date discrepancy worth noting
The Daily Mirror says the protest “began on Friday (7) morning.” 7 November 2026 was a Saturday, not a Friday. Hiru’s filing says the satyagraha began “yesterday (07)” — that is, Saturday 7 November — which is consistent with the date and with the original Saturday reports of the attempted protest and the arrests. The weekday label in the Daily Mirror’s account appears to be the error, not the date.
Still not reported
Neither filing says what the Sacred City Plan would do, when the gazette was issued, or why the monks oppose it. Neither names the two people arrested on Saturday or says whether they have been charged, and neither reports any government or Atamasthanadhipathi response. No police statement on whether the court order will be enforced appears in either report.
Update — 9 November: one of those arrested is named, charged and remanded
The question this article listed as unreported — who was arrested and whether they have been charged — is now partly answered.
Prasad Susantha Jayasiri, known as “Daham Prasad”, has been remanded until 16 November after being produced before the Anuradhapura Magistrate’s Court on Monday, NewsFirst reported.
He was arrested over the clash during the protest in the Anuradhapura sacred grounds, police said. The charges are assault, wrongful restraint, and obstructing police officers in the performance of their duties.
Police said he tested positive for heroin and cannabis in a medical examination, and said he had previously been arrested in Borella and Ratnapura on heroin and crystal methamphetamine possession charges.
These are allegations. No charge has been tried, and the remand order is not a finding of guilt.
What this does and does not establish
NewsFirst’s filing names one person. The original Saturday reports described two people taken into custody; this report does not say whether the second has been produced, released or charged, and does not state whether Jayasiri is one of the two Hiru reported or a later arrest.
Nothing in the filing connects him to the monks leading the satyagraha, and it does not describe him as a participant in the protest — only as someone arrested over the clash that occurred during it. The earlier accounts attributed the confrontation to an argument between two individuals that police moved to stop.
Still open
The filing does not say what the Sacred City Plan would do or why the monks oppose it, does not report the status of the second person arrested, and gives no update on whether the court order to vacate the site has been enforced or whether the satyagraha continues.
Update, 10 November — the satyagraha is still running, and there was a second confrontation
One of the questions left open above is now answered: the satyagraha continues, and the court order to vacate has evidently not been enforced. A further confrontation occurred at the site on Monday evening, 9 November.
A man who came to the site at the Ruwanweli Maha Seya challenged the protesting monks, telling them that holding such an action within the Anuradhapura sacred grounds was an act of disrespect to the Sasana, Hiru News reported, citing its own correspondent.
The exchange of words between the man and the monks escalated, and a police officer intervened and removed him from the site to prevent it going further.
How this differs from Saturday
The pattern is similar enough to the 7 November incident to be confused with it, and the distinction matters. On Saturday police removed a group that included monks who were attempting to begin the satyagraha, and two people were arrested — one later named as Prasad Susantha Jayasiri and remanded to 16 November. On Monday the monks were the ones in place, the person removed was an individual objecting to the protest, and no arrest is reported.
So the objection on Monday came from the opposite direction: not the authorities moving against the protest, but a member of the public confronting it on religious grounds.
Still open after this update
Hiru does not name the man removed, does not say whether he was detained or merely escorted away, and does not say whether any complaint was made. It gives no figure for how many monks remain at the site, no indication of how long the satyagraha is intended to continue, and no update on the enforcement of the vacate order or on the second person arrested on Saturday. There is still no reported account of what the Sacred City Plan contains.
Update, 11 November: three monks have begun a fast unto death
The protest has escalated from a satyagraha to a hunger strike.
Three Buddhist monks, including Venerable Balangoda Kassapa Thero, have begun a fast unto death near the Ruwanweli Maha Seya in Anuradhapura, Hiru News reported at 9.46 a.m. on Wednesday, citing its own correspondent. The fast began today (11).
That is the entirety of the filing. It is two sentences long.
What it changes
Kassapa Thero is the monk who has led this protest from the start, and who said the satyagraha would continue until the government withdraws the gazette notification on the Anuradhapura Sacred City Plan. The action has now run five days, from Friday 7 November, through a court order to vacate that was defied, two confrontations and one remand — and has now moved to a form of protest that puts the participants’ lives at stake.
A fast unto death also changes the clock. A satyagraha can continue indefinitely; a hunger strike forces a response, and in Sri Lanka such protests by monks have historically drawn direct government intervention.
What is not reported, and one caution
Hiru does not name the other two monks, does not say where at the site the fast is being held, and does not state the protesters’ demand in this filing — though the demand on the record since 7 November is withdrawal of the gazette. There is no response from the government, the police, the Department of Archaeology or the Mahanayake Theras, and no indication of whether medical staff are present.
A caution on the historical record. Venerable Balangoda Kassapa Thero has undertaken a fast before: he was among nine people remanded in January 2026 in a separate matter concerning a Buddha statue in Trincomalee. Searches for today’s development return that earlier episode prominently. The two are distinct — different location, different cause, ten months apart — and nothing in this article draws on the January case.
No other verified newsroom had filed on today’s fast at the time of writing. The Daily Mirror, NewsFirst and island.lk have all covered the satyagraha itself, but Hiru’s report is 11 minutes old and this remains, for now, a single-source account of the escalation.
