The house of the chief custodian of the historic temple where the sacred tooth relic of Buddha in central Sri Lanka has been placed, came under a grenade attack, prompting authorities to deploy additional police and army guards, police said yesterday.

Unidentified men had thrown the grenade towards the rear part of the house while the wife of the chief custodian of the 'Temple of the tooth' and their two children were in the house. Nobody was injured in the attack which took place late Wednesday night.

Police said they have not been able to arrest any of the people involved in the attack, but the residence which is situated close to the 'Temple of the tooth' or better known as the 'Dalada Maligawa' is now under a full armed guard.

The chief custodian of the Maligawa, Neranjan Wijeratne was out of the country at the time of the attack.

Wijeratne has been in the centre of a controversy following recent comments he made claiming that the Maligawa was once attacked by the Marxist JVP (People's Liberation Front) which tried to overthrow the then United National Party (UNP) government.

Wijeratne has claimed that the Maligawa was attacked by the JVP and they are responsible for shedding blood at the venerated site. The only other group to attack the site have been the Tamil guerrillas of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The JVP had attacked a guard post put up to guard the Maligawa and escaped with the weapons of the soldiers who were guarding the place in 1989. However following Wijeratne's statement, the JVP has strongly denied claims that they were responsible for the attack.

But, subsequently the chief Buddhist prelates based in central Sri Lanka have also declared that the JVP was in fact responsible for the attack. The issue has turned into a major political issue during campaigning for the impending elections.

The JVP claims that Wijeratne made the statement, 12 years after the incident as he wanted to discredit the JVP since his brother is contesting elections from the UNP which is now the main opposition party of the country.

The UNP has been making use of the issue as part of their campaign saying that that other than the LTTE it has only been the JVP which has shed blood at this venerated spot.