Pastors get death threats after monks-led ransacked two churches in Sri Lanka

After a Buddhist monks-led mob attacks vandalised two independent and growing churches in Sri Lanka, pastors get death threats from the alleged attackers.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan police said they have identified 24 people, including eight Buddhist monks for allegedly attacking two independent churches in southern coastal town of Hikkaduwa, ransacking church properties.

Although no one got injured in the process, one pastor told BBC news that they are getting death threats.

Video footage aired by a private television channel, Derana, showed Buddhist monks at a building used by an independent church shouting insults in Sihala language, smashing up sings, setting goods alight and hurling stones and what appeared to be a brick.

In another footage released by a Christian group, Pastor Ranjan Perumal of the Calvary Free Church indicated smouldering papers lying by a railway, which he said were burned Bibles and Christian literature.

Windows, doors and musical instruments were also smashed.

A senior politician of the main opposition party, Karu Jayasuriya, has urged a full investigation by the government into the "very sad" attacks.

"The government should take steps, corrective actions, to ensure this doesn't happen again," he told the BBC.

He said that he as a Buddhist believed all religious and ethnic groups should coexist peacefully.

Some monks have alleged that the Calvary Free Church and the Assemblies of God are operating illegally. The pastors of the churches said they received orders from the government to close down their church; but they told BBC that they are registered under an Act of Parliament and are opening legally.

The pastors also said they have been attacked earlier too, including an assault on a woman in 2003 which is still in the courts. They also alleged that some monks involved in earlier assaults were present on Sunday attack.

The hardline and resurgent Buddhist nationalism among the majority Sinhalese community have prompted attacks not only on Christians but also on other minorities including Muslims whose businesses and mosques also came under attacks.

The Christian community alleged that minor attacks were reported throughout Christmas season but those events go unreported.