The Sri Lankan Embassy has also been informed that a group of thieves entered Mahamevna Asapuwa, a Buddhist temple near Washington DC in America, and stole money from there.
This happened when they were not in the temple and the next day three such suspicious persons came to the Washington DC temple and asked for clean water they were stopped outside the gate by giving them 03 bottles of water and diverted them. Also, a group of suspicious women who came to Dhammanadaya temple in Virginia tried to enter by asking for pirith pan, and the head of the temple also thwarted that. Otherwise, it is speculated that some accident would have happened to those temples as well.
In addition to Sri Lankan temples, Thai, Burmese, Cambodian and Vietnamese temples have also been severely affected by thieves’ threats, police sources say.
With the occurrence of these incidents, Mr. Mahinda Samarasinghe, the Sri Lankan ambassador to the country, has been activated. Speaking to the priests of the temples in the areas of Washington, Maryland, and Virginia in the United States, they not only advised them to be careful of thieves but also informed the FBI intelligence service of the United States. Furthermore, Ambassador Samarasinghe has arranged for the Deputy Head of Mission and Security Advisor of the Washington Embassy to discuss this with the FBI and to make a written request to ensure the security of all Buddhist temples in America.
The CCTV footage related to the thefts has been given to the security forces and it is speculated that the group of thieves came from Eastern European countries and are staying in the United States illegally.
The ambassador also pointed out that the group is an organized group and their main goal is to steal the money collected in the temples after the Katina Pinkam and the religious activities where devotees gather in large numbers.
