Muslims Didn’t Destroy Wilpattu Forest – Mahinda

In a question and answer session through his twitter account, former President cum current Member of Parliament for Kurunegala District distinctly said, that Muslims didn’t destroy Wilpattu forest. It was his government which granted lands beyond the perimeter of Wilpattu National Park    to settle Muslim refugees from Mannar to settle. They were chased out by the LTTE. He directed Basil Rajapakshe to provide human resources, identify lands, survey it, issue relevant permits and settle them. Other than this, if forest department claims that Muslims have destroyed forest reserve, they are at liberty to take action according to the law of the land. Even Minister of Industry and

Commerce too have said so. At this stage we cannot allow anyone to harass these Muslim refugees settled there. I have no truck with the communal elements, who promote communalism. I am not a communalist. I believe in coexistence with Muslims and I am used to live amicably with them. There is no place for violence or communalism in my future political plan. I hate communalism. In replying to a question about his association with BBS, he said that now the entire country knows very well who is behind BBS, he concluded.