Sri Lanka’s government Tuesday formally apologised to the island’s Muslim minority for forcing cremations on Covid victims, disregarding WHO assurances that burials in line with Islamic rites were safe.

The cabinet issued an “apology regarding the compulsory cremation policy during the Covid-19 pandemic”, the government said in a statement.

It said a new law would guarantee the right to burial or cremation to ensure the funeral customs of Muslims or any other community were not violated in future.

Traditionally, Muslims bury their dead facing Makkah. Sri Lanka’s majority Buddhists are typically cremated, as are Hindus.

Muslim representatives in Sri Lanka welcomed the apology, but said their entire community, accounting for about 10 per cent of the island’s 22 million population, was still traumatised.

“We will now sue two academics – Meththika Vithanage and Channa Jayasumana – who were behind the forced cremation policy of the government,” Hilmy Ahamed, spokesman for the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, told AFP.

“We will also seek compensation.”

Ahamed said a young Muslim couple suffered untold anguish when their 40-day-old infant was cremated by the state against their wishes.

Then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa banned burials despite his administration facing international condemnation at the UN Human Rights Council and other forums for violating Muslim funeral norms.

In a book published earlier this month, he defended his action saying he was only carrying out “expert advice” from Vithanage, a professor of natural resources, not to let Covid victims be interred.

She has no medical background.

Rajapaksa halted his forced cremations policy in February 2021 following an appeal from then Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan during a visit to Sri Lanka.

The government then allowed burials at the remote Oddamavadi area in the island’s east under strict military supervision – but without the participation of the bereaved family.

Rajapaksa was forced out of office two years ago following months of protests over an unprecedented economic crisis, which had led to shortages of food, fuel and medicines.