{"id":117703,"date":"2013-12-31T15:12:21","date_gmt":"2013-12-31T09:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=117703"},"modified":"2014-01-15T14:26:34","modified_gmt":"2014-01-15T08:56:34","slug":"three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Churches Attacked On Christmas Eve"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;As the world prepared to celebrate Christmas on the 24<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0evening, three churches in the South of Sri Lanka were attacked by mobs&#8221;, says the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nceasl.org\">National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka<\/a>\u00a0(NCEASL).<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_39774\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Mattegodachurch_1_04.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39774\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-39774\" alt=\"File photo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Mattegodachurch_1_04-150x150.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Mattegodachurch_1_04-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Mattegodachurch_1_04-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-39774\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">File photo<\/p><\/div>\n<p>1. The pastor of the\u00a0<i>Assemblies of God\u00a0<\/i>church in Angunukolapalassa was surrounded by a mob of over 300 villagers together with Buddhist monks, demanding he stops all worship services planned for Christmas day. The mob alleged that there was a police complaint made by a Buddhist monk against the pastor\u2019s religious activities. However, the pastor cited his fundamental rights and refused to stop holding services. The pastor was provided police protection from the night of the incident.<\/p>\n<p>2. The same night, the\u00a0<i>Assemblies of God<\/i>\u00a0Church in Hikkaduwa was attacked by a group of unidentified assailants throwing\u00a0fire crackers into the church premises and into the pastors residence adjoining the church.<\/p>\n<p>3. At approximately at 11.30p.m., another group of unidentified assailants began to hurl stones at the\u00a0<em>Light House Church<\/em>Hikkaduwa. Some minor damage was reported with glass windows being shattered by the stones.<\/p>\n<p>All three pastors have lodged police complaints in the respective area police stations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":39774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,6969,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Three Churches Attacked On Christmas Eve  - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three Churches Attacked On Christmas Eve  - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-31T09:42:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-01-15T08:56:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Mattegodachurch_1_04.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"203\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"152\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/\",\"name\":\"Three Churches Attacked On Christmas Eve - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Mattegodachurch_1_04.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-12-31T09:42:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-01-15T08:56:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Mattegodachurch_1_04.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Mattegodachurch_1_04.jpg\",\"width\":\"203\",\"height\":\"152\",\"caption\":\"Mattegoda Church attack \/ File photo\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Three Churches Attacked On Christmas Eve\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Three Churches Attacked On Christmas Eve  - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Three Churches Attacked On Christmas Eve  - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2013-12-31T09:42:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-01-15T08:56:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":203,"height":152,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Mattegodachurch_1_04.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/","name":"Three Churches Attacked On Christmas Eve - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Mattegodachurch_1_04.jpg","datePublished":"2013-12-31T09:42:21+00:00","dateModified":"2014-01-15T08:56:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Mattegodachurch_1_04.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Mattegodachurch_1_04.jpg","width":"203","height":"152","caption":"Mattegoda Church attack \/ File photo"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/three-churches-attacked-on-christmas-eve\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Three Churches Attacked On Christmas Eve"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Mattegodachurch_1_04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117703"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118420,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117703\/revisions\/118420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}