Prince Edward arrived in Colombo Wednesday will meet with deaf and blind students and travel to Kandy before attending Sri Lanka’s independence anniversary celebrations, the British High Commission said.
Edward and his wife will visit the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy on Thursday and the schools for the deaf and blind at Ratmalana on Saturday, the high commission said.
"During their visit to the schools for the deaf and blind in Ratmalana, they will meet able and differently-abled young people following the Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme," a high commission statement said.
It said the royal couple during their five-day stay will also meet with athletes who will represent Sri Lanka at the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.
Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain on February 4, 1948.
The last royal guest at a Sri Lankan independence day celebration was Prince Charles in 1998. His visit, in the middle of a bitter Tamil separatist war, was marred by bomb attacks blamed on the rebels.
The war that claimed at least 100,000 lives, ended in May 2009 with the elimination of the entire Tamil rebel leadership by security forces.
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