MANGALURU: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his wife Maithree Wickremsinghe offered puja at the famous Kollur Mookambika temple in Udupi district on Tuesday.
According to the temple authorities, the couple offered ‘Purnahuti’ at the ‘Homa Kunda’ and also took part in’Chandika Homa’ rituals. The couple were accorded a traditional ‘Poorna Kumbha’ welcome on their arrival at the temple.
Prior to that, Deputy Commissioner Priyanka Mary Francis and SP Sanjiv M Patil welcomed the Sri Lanka PM at Are-Shiroor helipad at around 11 am. The temple and its surroundings had turned into a fortress with tight police security and entry of devotees was banned from 11 am to 1 pm in view VVIP visit.
After offering pooja at Kollur temple, Wickremesinghe left for New Delhi, sources said. He was supposed to visit Kollur temple in late August but the plan was cancelled at the last minute owing to bad weather. Earlier in the day, Wickremesinghe arrived at Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) at around 7 am. Later, he drove to Hotel Gateway in the city, in a bulletproof Ambassador car where he had breakfast.