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Police return to regular duties after months of queues and protests

29 Aug 2022

  • Say earlier seven of 10 cops engaged in non-traditional work
By Buddhika Samaraweera   Noting that there is no great need to deploy police officers to manage protests and places like filling stations and gas distribution centres in the current situation, Sri Lanka Police has stated that it is now taking steps to deploy officers at full capacity for normal duties such as crime prevention and investigations, including those pertaining to the combatting of underworld activities. Speaking to The Morning yesterday (28), Police Media Spokesman, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), and Attorney-at-Law Nihal Thalduwa said: “In recent times, there have been problematic situations in the deployment of police officers. The police officers had to be deployed for protests, filling stations, and gas distribution centres, but in the current situation there is no great need to deploy officers for such duties.” Accordingly, he mentioned that measures are currently being taken to deploy police officers at full capacity for normal duties such as crime prevention and investigations. In particular, he said, operations carried out to combat underworld activities have increased, especially with the support of institutions such as the Police Special Task Force (STF) and intelligence agencies. “In the last few months, if there were 10 police officers for crime prevention and investigation work, seven of them had to be deployed for additional duties such as protests and gas/fuel distribution. However, since there is no such need now, all those 10 officers can be deployed again for normal duties. Due to this, the operations to combat underworld activities have also been increased with the support of the STF and intelligence agencies,” added SSP Thalduwa. Meanwhile, it was reported that Public Security Minister Tiran Alles has instructed senior police officials in the Western and Southern Provinces to take steps to combat underworld activities, as an increase of such has been observed in the said provinces. The Minister has given these instructions during a meeting attended by senior police officials including Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) in charge of the Western Province Deshabandu Tennakoon and SDIG in charge of the Southern Province Ajith Rohana. The past few months have seen an increase in crime across the country. There have been more than 15 shootings which have ended in deaths in several areas in the Western and Southern Provinces. The Police have arrested a number of suspects in connection with the incidents. Following the relevant investigations, it has been found that most of such incidents are linked to underworld activities including drug trafficking.


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