The reconstruction of temples by members of the security forces under the direction of the Ministry of Defence was funded by a special account opened by the ministry and not by the government capital, former Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa said.

He revealed this while participating an event at the Matugama-Bellana Pirivena recently.

Former Defence Secretary stated that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa instructed to use strength of the armed forces to reconstruct sacred places after defeating terrorism. Under these instructions, the armed forces were used to conduct reconstruction works in more than 1,000 temples island wide.

Rajapaksa further mentioned that those temples were reconstructed by the funds provided by various contributors to the special account.