"May you attain the supreme bliss of Nibbana (Nirvana), little one," reads the opening line of a Sinhala-language post shared on Facebook here on May 16, 2023.
It goes on to claim a five-and-a-half-year-old girl named Dilushika Leoni, who lived in the southern town of Weligama, died after she was stuffed into a washing machine.
"Because of a mischievous act in school, (Dilushika) was reprimanded at home. Usually, her mother would punish her by shutting her inside an almyrah (wardrobe).
"But this time her father, determined to escalate the punishment, stuffed her into the washing machine and switched it on. The machine ran for an hour while the mother played a jigsaw puzzle with her nine-year-old.
"When Dilushika was eventually taken out, she had turned blue and was unresponsive."
Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on May 24, 2023
The same false claim was shared hundreds of times in Facebook posts here and here.
Comments left by some users indicated they were misled by the posts.
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