The burqa is a garment worn by some Muslim women that covers the entire body, including the face, with mesh over the eyes.
Sarath Weerasekera, the country’s public security minister, signed a document on Friday for the cabinet’s approval to ban burqas for “national security” reasons.
“In our early days, Muslim women and girls never wore burqas,” he told a news conference on Saturday. “It is a sign of religious extremism that has recently emerged. We are definitely going to ban it.”
In the days following the attacks, Sri Lankan intelligence services said they believed the suicide bombers had clear links to ISIS. The alleged mentor and leader, Zahran Hashim was a radical Islamic preacher, known to the authorities and the local Muslim community.
Later that year, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, best known for crushing a decades-old insurgency in the north of the country as secretary of defense, was elected president after promising a crackdown on extremism.
Rajapaksa is accused of widespread rights abuses during the war, which he denies.
Weerasekera said the government plans to ban more than 1,000 Islamic schools in madrassa that he said were in breach of national education policy.
“Nobody can open a school and teach what they want to children,” he said.