President Rajapakse’s wife, son visit Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 June 2009, 13:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka president’s wife Shiranthi Rajapakse and his son Namal Rajapakse arrived on a sudden visit to Jaffna Friday morning with a statue of Changkamiththa, Emperor Aoska’s daughter and the first woman Buddhist missionary to Ceylon, to be enshrined in the newly built Buddhist temple in Maathakal in the High Security Zone (HSZ), sources in Jaffna said. Seven girl students were taken to the temple by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers on the occasion to sing the national anthem in Sinhalese language, the sources added.

Shiranthi and Namal arriving at Palaali military airport Friday early morning were taken under heavy escort to Maathakal, a traditional coastal Tamil village, claimed to be the place where Changkamiththa landed.

250 internally displaced persons in Maathakal, selected by SLN in an interview held Thursday by SLN soldiers, were taken to the Buddhist temple Friday to participate in the prayers at the newly built Buddhist temple.

The visiting dignitaries remained in the temple until 2:20 p.m after which they were escorted to Palaali military airport for their journey back to Colombo.