Freed Ven. Gnanasara calls for calm

 Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara speaks after his release 

yesterday  - Pic by Chamila Karunarathne

• Says he plans to spend his time engaged in priestly duties
  
   

Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) General Secretary Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara struck a subdued note yesterday after being freed from jail, calling on his supporters to be calm and to act judiciously for the sake of the country. 

Making a short statement after his release, Ven. Gnanasara thanked President Maithripala Sirisena, Justice Minister Thalatha Athukorale, and other State officials for his release. He also thanked Buddhist priests and his supporters for campaigning for his release and seeking a presidential pardon. “I ask everyone to be calm and to make sensible and patient decisions, considering the long-term repercussions. I am very tired now. We have spent many years trying to show officials of the problems facing this country, our concerns that were dismissed have now been realised. So I ask you all to act with care now. I plan to spend the rest of my time by following the Dhamma, as befits a Buddhist monk. I stand ready to give my life for this country, but in order to do that we must first have a country,” he said. 

Ven. Gnanasara was serving a six-year jail term for Contempt of Court, but was freed Thursday, following a presidential pardon. 

Ven. Gnanasara was driven out of the Welikada Prison hospital, where he had spent much of his sentence since his first imprisonment in June last year. 

The controversial monk left through a backdoor, avoiding journalists and hundreds of supporters who gathered outside, AFP reported. 

Gnanasara has been serving concurrent jail sentences extending up to six years, over his disruptive behaviour in a lower Court, and for intimidating activist and wife of Pradeep Ekneligoda, Sandya Ekneligoda in 2016. 

He has long been accused of instigating hate crimes against minority Muslims, but denied involvement in anti-Muslim riots in 2014 that left four people dead. 

Officials said President Maithripala Sirisena pardoned Gnanasara days after releasing 762 other convicts to mark Vesak.

Ven. Gnanasara has maintained close ties with Wirathu, an extremist monk based in Myanmar, whose hate speech has stoked religious tensions in that country. 

Wirathu visited Sri Lanka as a guest of Gnanasara, shortly after the 2014 anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka’s coastal town of Aluthgama, and the duo vowed to fight what they called the threat to Buddhism from Islamic jihadists.