Sri Lanka announced plans to ban the wearing of burkas and said it would close more than 1,000 Islamic schools known as madrassas, citing national security.

The country’s minister of public security Sarath Weerasekara said he signed a paper on Friday seeking the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers to ban burkas — outer garments that cover the body and face worn by some Muslim women.

“The burka has a direct impact on national security,” Mr Weerasekara told a ceremony at a Buddhist temple on Saturday, without elaborating.

“In our early days, we had a lot of Muslim friends, but Muslim women and girls never wore the burka,” Mr Weerasekara said, according to video footage sent by his ministry.

“It is a sign of religious extremism that came about recently.

“We will definitely ban it.”

The wearing of burkas was temporarily banned in 2019 after the Easter Sunday bomb attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka that killed more than 260 people.

Two local Muslim groups that had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group have been blamed for the attacks at six locations — two Roman Catholic churches, one Protestant church and three top hotels.

Mr Weerasekara also said the government will ban more than 1,000 madrassas, saying they are not registered with the authorities and do not follow the national education policy.

The decision to ban burkas and madrassas is the latest move affecting the Indian Ocean island nation’s minority Muslims.

Muslims make up about 9% of the 22 million people in Sri Lanka, where Buddhists account for more than 70% of the population.

Ethnic minority Tamils, who are mainly Hindus, comprise about 15% of the population.

Read more: Buddhist mobs target Sri Lanka’s Muslims despite state of emergency

India has asked its telecom operators to find ways of blocking applications such as Facebook and messaging app WhatsApp in the case of misuse, according to a document seen by Reuters.

India has in recent months intensified efforts to crack down on mass message forwards after it found that people were using social media and messaging apps to spread rumours and stoke public anger.

WhatsApp in particular has faced the wrath of Indian regulators after false messages circulated on the messaging platform led to a series of lynchings and mob beatings across the country.

The department of telecommunications in July asked Indian telecom service providers, as well as mobile and internet industry bodies, to “explore various possible options” to block such apps.

“You are…requested to explore various possible options and confirm how the Instagram/Facebook/Whatsapp/Telegram and such other mobile apps can be blocked on internet,” according to the government letter dated July 18 and seen by Reuters.

Facebook Inc, which owns both WhatsApp and photo-sharing platform Instagram, declined to comment. Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A source at India’s department of telecommunication said the letter was aimed at finding ways to block such apps during “emergency situations”.

“There is a need for a reasonable good solution to protect national security,” said the official, who declined to be named.

For WhatsApp, India is its biggest market with more than 200 million users and one where it says people forward more messages, photographs and videos than any other country.

Following calls from the government to stem the platform’s misuse, WhatsApp has moved to deter mass message forwards and launched an advertising campaign to educate consumers.

In July, WhatsApp said message forwards will be limited to five chats at a time, whether among individuals or groups, and said it will remove the quick forward button placed next to media messages.

Separately, India’s federal police has begun probing Cambridge Analytica’s misuse of Facebook user data, which New Delhi suspects included information on Indian users.