Ritual restored at Sri Lanka’s historic Hindu festival under tight security

A key ritual that was cancelled over an underworld threat returned to Sri Lanka’s centuries-old annual religious pageant at an ancient Hindu temple in the coastal town of Devinuwara on Tuesday amid an unprecedented security deployment, police said.

Around 1,500 personnel, including members of the elite Special Task Force (STF), were deployed to secure the Kavadi ritual in the Esala perahera (pageant) at the Uthpalawanna Sri Vishnu temple.

The traditional dance ritual was reinstated after being called off on Sunday following intelligence inputs of a possible armed or drone attack on the pageant linked to the ongoing rivalry between fugitive drug kingpins Shehan Sathsara and Kanjipani Imran, both believed to be operating from overseas.