As Sri Lanka develops an ancient city home to Buddhist heritage sites, a fabricated news graphic was shared in posts falsely claiming a government minister said places of worship from other religions should also be built there. The minister's purported quote struck a nerve in the Buddhist-majority country, where the ruling coalition has been accused by opposition critics of pursuing an anti-Buddhist policy. The minister told AFP the claim is entirely false and he made no such statement, while the news organisation whose logo was used in the graphic also said it did not publish it.
A purported news graphic featuring the logo of Web News and a photo of Sri Lanka's Buddhist Affairs Minister Hiniduma Sunil Senevi was shared on Facebook on October 26, 2026 (archived here and here ).
The graphic includes a Sinhala-language quote attributed to Senevi that reads: "The Anuradhapura sacred site does not belong to just one group. Imagine the diversity, vividness, vibrancy, and colourfulness that would emerge if Muslim, Hindu and Catholic places of worship -- mosques, kovils [Hindu Temples] and churches -- were built near the Ruwanweli Stupa."
The Anuradhapura sacred site referred to in the purported quote is an ancient city about 200 kilometres (124 miles) north of Colombo that is home to hundreds of heritage sites -- including the Ruwanwelisaya , also known as the Great Stupa , one of the largest and tallest Buddhist monuments (archived here , here , here and here ).
The area is being developed to upgrade infrastructure and preserve the city's historical, archaeological and religious heritage ( archived link ).
The Facebook user who shared the graphic accuses the Sri Lankan government of destroying Buddhism, and asks people whether they would allow it to happen.
Screenshot of the false post captured on November 2, 2026, with red Xs added by AFP
The same graphic was also shared in similar Facebook posts after President Anura Kumara Dissanayake visited Anuradhapura on October 23 to review the development project ( archived link ).
The country's ruling leftist coalition, the National People's Power (NPP), first came to power in 2024 and has been accused by the opposition and critics of pursuing an anti-Buddhist policy (archived here and here ).
But there have been no official reports of the Buddhist affairs minister saying Muslim, Hindu and Catholic places of worship should be built near Buddhist monuments in Anuradhapura.
A reverse image search on Google led to a Web News Facebook post from October 27 that denied the outlet had published the circulating graphic ( archived link ).
"We wish to state, with full responsibility, that the post currently circulating on social media -- purportedly published by our organisation -- is fake, and that we have not issued any such post," the post says.
The falsely shared image differs from Web News-published graphics , which feature white-on-yellow or yellow-on-black text of a different size ( archived link ). The falsely shared image also omits text at the bottom of genuine Web News graphics that points to the outlet's website.
Screenshot comparison of the false graphic (L) and a genuine Web News graphic
Buddhist Affairs Minister Senevi also told AFP via WhatsApp on October 30: "This is entirely false. I have not made any such statements. We will take necessary legal action."
A separate reverse image search found the photo of the minister used in the falsely shared graphic dates back to July 2025 , when he was speaking at a press conference about adding two documents of significant historical importance to Sri Lanka to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register (archived here , here and here ).
Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared graphic (L) and the same photo of the minister published in July 2025
AFP has previously debunked other false claims that relied on fabricated news graphics , which are a common tool for spreading misinformation in Sri Lanka.
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