1. It was at beginning of 1990 where both our historical Keerimalai and Maavittapuram kovils went under military high security zone. Since then
all the Sacred statues of both these kovils were scattered everywhere. All the statues were digged to take the gold plate underneath and the statues were
thrown into all the surrounding areas in “Mailatty”, “kurunbusitty”, “vasavillan” areas. All the “Aimpon” statues were smuggled to south for good
price. You may have remember how big the “Moolasthana Vikraham” at Maavittapuram kandasami kovil. That statue is completely missing. I was crying
myself when I saw the plide of Maavittapuram kovil in the year 1997 when I was going in a bus from Jaffna to KKS to take ship to south. Both kovils
were completely destroyed due to shelling and bumming at that time.

2. It was Naguleswara Kurukkal’s extreme effort to collect the missing statues both Keerimalai and Maavittapuram kovils. I personally helped
Naguleswara Kurukkal in his great effort. He went and met lot of high rank military officers in colombo explaining importance and values of those statues
and the necessity to get them back. Lot of high rank officers felt really sorry for what has happened to these kovils and helped us in searching for
the statues in all the possible ways. Almost every weekend we used to receive calls from officers and me and Naguleswara kurukkal used to visit
to Ratmalana camp and colombo head office to identify the statues and collect them back. Officers said these statues were seen scattered in those areas
as I said above. Not all the statues were recovered. All the “Aimpon” statues were missing altogether.

3. It was Naguleswara Kurukkal’s great effort to go and stay in Keerimalai alone and slowly persuaded officers and slowly got permission to
reconstruct the Keerimalai slowly. This was after 1998. Yes he stayed there alone in the middle of the military machine. There were no public
in those areas at that time. He stayed there, cooked for himself and worked hard to get the Kovil back. Later he stayed in Thellipalai and traveled alone
daily to Keerimalai for the construction works. He managed to bring sinhala workers and got the Kovil reconstructed slowly. Not to mention
tamil labours are not allowed in the high security zone. I do not think in the current world, anyone has got such a brave guts to challenge like him.

4. If someone wants to really understand his great works here is the simple steps. Visit both Keerimalai and Keetheeswaram kovils. Both are in the middle
of the military high security zones. But Keetheeswaram is still like a forest now whereas Keerimalai is back to how it was before 1990.

It is good to see this work getting exposure on groundviews.