ASHRAFF A SAMAD
COLOMBO : Home-grown dates are being harvested in Kattankudy, a city in the Batticaloa district in the Eastern Province.
The city full of date palms looked more like a town in the Middle East is the brainchild of M L A M Hizbullah, former minister and parliamentarian who took the initiative to plant date palms in Kattankudy 10 years ago, considering the identical climate found in Kattankudy compared to the weather in the Middle East.
The trees are well maintained by the local urban council on an arrangement made by Hizbullah.
Kattankudy is mainly a Muslim town which has largest concentration of Muslims in Sri Lanka, has now attracted local and international tourists by virtue of its Islamic cultural outlook as that of an Arab country.
Hizbullah also built a replica of the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The mosque complex has the identical features of the mosque in Jerusalem, even the bricks were the same as that of the original complex.
Kattankudy is also blessed with Heritage Museum which was also built by Hizbullah. At present, the museum which has century old artefacts related to Islam an Sri Lankan Muslim, is run by the department of archaeology
