31st July 2022 15:21:50 Hours
Nearly 5000 devotees from the North and East trekking through the Kumana and Yala National Parks, bound for Kataragama in order to participate in the Ruhunu Maha Kataragama Devala festival, just began, have been enjoying the hospitality, being extended by 122 Brigade and 23 Gajaba Regiment troops of the 12 Division of the Security Force HQ- Central from Friday (22 July) onwards in Kataragama after they entered the Yala National Park perimeters.
Those devotees are provided drinking water, cooked foods, medicine and temporary shelters by the troops in close collaboration with state agencies. Guidelines given by the Commander, Security Forces, Central, Major General Samantha Silva and the close supervision of Major General Lanka Amarapala, General Officer Commanding, 12 Division have enabled the troops to provide those facilities.
The Commander, 122 Brigade instructed the troops to take care of them during their stay in Kataragama for the annual Esala Perhera festival after they arrived there a few days ago.
Those devotees are from Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Pottuvil and Ampara areas and have undertaken the pilgrimage after absence of three years due to COVID 19 epidemic.
