(COLOMBO) – Commandos from Sri Lanka’s elite Special Task Force (STF) are to be removed from the country’s express highways since they are underutilized, the Parliament was told on Wednesday.
The STF personnel were used in cases of fire and accidents that occur on the expressways and they had been pressed into such duty only on 164 occasions inside a period of 330 days, Sri Lanka’s Public Security Minister Tiran Alles told the House.
He was responding to a question raised by the main Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa.
“An estimated Rs. 260 million of State funds are allocated to maintain the STF personnel on the expressways adding that this strength could be assigned to combat the drug menace in the country.
In addition to that we have 2,300 vacancies in the STF. We need the STF for the purpose of combating the drug menace,” Alles said.
He added that the STF personnel were initially used for expressway duties in 2011 as the quotation called from the fire brigade for such duties was far too high.
He said the regular police will continue their duties at expressways adding that in most countries, fire and rescue operations are done by the fire brigade.
The STF which is the fighting unit of the Sri Lanka Police Department was set up some 30 years ago to assist the security forces in the fight against the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.
Initially the STF was trained by foreign mercenaries from South Africa, Britain Israel and so on and it packed a record for high discipline among the rank and file.
The STF was also feared by the Tamil Tiger separatists owing to its fierce and successful battle field tactics mainly in the north and east of the country.
