1998 Temple of the Tooth attack

The 1998 Temple of the Tooth attack was an attack on the Temple of the Tooth Relic, located in Kandy, Sri Lanka. The shrine, which is considered to be important to the Buddhists in Sri Lanka, houses the relic of the tooth of the Buddha and is also a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site. In 1998, it was attacked by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist militant organization which fought to create an independent Tamil state in the northern and eastern parts of the country from 1983 to 2009.