Following the United States’ cancellation of Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) General Secretary Ven. Galagodaatte Gnanasara Thera’s visa, the BBS today said that there was a conspiracy by Muslim extremist organisations in Australia to follow suit.

It said an Australian Muslim Organisation had sent a letter to the Australian Immigration Border Protection Minister Scott Morrison requesting him not to allow the BBS General Secretary to enter Australia. The letter sent to the minister had claimed that Ven. Galagodaatte Gnanasara Thera had a criminal record in Sri Lanka and was accountable for the killings in Aluthgama. It also calls the BBS a terrorist oraganisation which had destroyed many business establishments belonging to Muslims in Sri Lanka. ‘All these allegations are false and are baseless,” BBS Executive Committee Member Dilantha Vithanage told a news conference.  

Meanwhile Ven. Gnanasara Thera said that the BBS was receiving a large number of invitations from Sri Lankans living abroad to take part in various religious activities. “We accept some of the invitations and we reject some of them because of the workload we have. We have been receiving many invitations from Sri Lankans in Australia to visit there but we have not made any immediate decision to visit the country yet or applied for a visa,” he said, adding that they were hoping to visit Australia possibly in October.(Lahiru Pothmulla and Yoshitha Perera)