The monk who wants to be a cop

The Sri Lankan police has asked the Buddhist monk to give up his saffron robes and leave the monastery if he wants to join the force.

A Buddhist monk who wanted to join Sri Lanka's police force had his application rejected and told he'd first have to give up his saffron robes and leave the monastery.

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The monk was among nearly 1,000 people who applied for a job on the force, said Neville Piyadigama, chairman of the National Police Commission, an independent body that handles recruitment.

"We rejected his application," Piyadigama told the agency, asking how a Buddhist monk bound by nonviolence could "perform the duties of a police officer, as he has to wear a uniform and carry a gun".

Piyadigama, however, said the monk could join if he resigned from the monkhood.

The name of the monk was withheld by the commission.

A vast majority of Sri Lanka's majority ethnic Sinhalese are Buddhists and monks consider themselves guardians of the nation.

Sri Lanka's police play a crucial role against Tamil rebels who began fighting in 1983 for a separate homeland.