The General Secretary of Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), Galaboda Aththe Gnanasara Thero today refuted media reports alleging that it was under his guidance that the Defence Ministry had deployed military troops to Weliweriya, during a protest by villagers demanding drinking water last Thursday.

A local English daily had quoted the Thero as saying that it was him who sent troops to Weliweriya after observing the situation in the area.

“Though the demand by the villagers was extremely justifiable when observing the situation, I figured that things could turn bad as the villagers were politically misled by a group,” he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

However speaking at a press conference in Colombo today, Gnanasara Thero stated that the Bodu Bala Sena organization had visited the Rathupaswala area during the initial protests against the polluted drinking water crisis to look into the matter and provide a solution.

“We did not want to go there to carry out any publicity stunts, we only wanted to find out the cause and get anyone to intervene to provide a solution for the problems faced by those people,” he said.

The Venerable Thero said that after they had visited Mahiyanganaya and were returning back to Colombo four days later he had given a 3-minute phone interview to the newspaper in question detailing the organization’s involvement and what he had said was wrongly interpreted by that journalist.  

“Who am I to give orders to the army?” he asked.

Gnanasara Thero further said that such inaccurate reports published by the media could harm the country the Buddha Sasana, Budhdist monks and the race.

“Those people could get excited and even come kill us,” he expressed.

The Ven. Thero, however, noted that the head of the newspaper publication had contacted him to apologize for the mistake vowed to remove those responsible.

The BBS General Secretary said the Buddhist nationalist organization is presently facing various attacks and that even Ministers are making complexly false allegations against them.

He also claimed that large numbers of Non-Governmental Organizations are “pumping” money to “sweep aside” this rising nationalism and Buddhist revival and to portray Sri Lanka as a militarized country to the world.

He charged that groups supporting separatism are pumping immense fortunes for the tasks of achieving the 13th Amendment and to eradicate those against it.

As a result of this certain media and websites are making absurd accusations to attempt to defeat us, Gnanasara Thero said.