The news is incomprehensible, and to say the least shocking. The hair is our precious heritage. Though majority of this country are Muslims today but there are Buddhists too amongst us. We were Buddhists before Lankans became Buddhists. By all criteria of history, culture and tradition the holy hair belongs to Bangladesh and should remain so.

Alternatively, does it mean that we are incapable of preserving our own heritage? Shall we give away our many black stone Hindu deity figures of ancient times to Nepal, a Hindu kingdom, or India, a secular but predominantly Hindu country for the sake of friendship as is being claimed in this case?

Everybody here knows that we do maintain a friendly and warm relationship with them as it is, and we do not have to hand over our precious heritage to convince them further of that relationship without setting a burdensome and painful precedence to develop friendly relations with other countries. Shouldn't Myanmar, a contiguous Buddhist country would be a more serious candidate for the purpose of keeping such an important and precious Buddhist relic? What about Thailand or Japan? Aren't we interested to promote friendship with them through transfer of whatever worthwhile we have inherited from the past?

Consequently, it is deeply felt that we continue to keep our own heritage, in this case Lord Buddha's hair for our posterity.

The Sri Lankans are most welcome to see this and other relics of interest without taking possession of them. They should themselves be friendly enough to suggest that it is much friendlier that such a heritage should better be preserved with the people of Bangladesh.