A lawsuit has been filed against a Buddhist monk and six persons under the peaceful assembly and procession law for staging a protest against Myanmar’s K Pop group, Project K, at Yangon International Airport for stepping on images of the Shwedagon Pagoda.
“Yes, Mingalardon Township Police Station has lodged a suit against us under Section 19 of the law. There are seven of us, including me. No letter has come to us directly. We will face it and solve the problem. We are waiting,” said Monk U Panna Vamsa.
He said they staged the protest of their own accord. They came to demand action against Project K group in accord with the existing law for insult to the religion.
“The Religious Affairs Department did not take action against Project K group for their intentional attack on and insult to the religion. Is that group above the law because we monks and public members have been sued the peaceful assembly and procession law?” the monk commented.
Project K, met with a protest from some public members when they arrived back at Yangon International Airport on October 13 after participating in Asia Song Festival 2020.
Their performance at the festival has drawn widespread condemnation for stepping on images of the Shwedagon Pagoda.
On October 10, Project K group uploaded the video of their performance at the Asia Song Festival 2020 on their Facebook page, in which it showed that the image of the Shwedagon Pagoda was projected on the floor of the stage.
Since then the group has been criticized by social media users for their performance by stepping on the pagoda images. When they arrived back, they also met with a protest at the airport.
Regarding the incident, Project K issued an apology on their Facebook Page by claiming that they only found out they were performing on the image of the Shwedagon Pagoda at the Asia Song Festival 2020.
"There was no LED light during the first rehearsal. It was there for the second rehearsal. We knew that there was an LED being shown below us but while we were dancing, we did not know what image it even was," said the apology.
It further goes on to say that all of them are Buddhists and they would have surely stopped it if they had known earlier. They only found out after the event and that they were very sorry for their mistake even though they tried their best.
They expressed their sincere apologies, on their Facebook Page.
State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, while on her trip to South Korea in November 2019 for the ASEAN-Korea Summit and Mekong-Korea Summit, had requested President Moon Jae-In to help train the Project K group.
