(COLOMBO) – More than 2,000 persons were rounded up by police in a special anti-crime operation carried throughout Sri Lanka over the weekend, a senior police official said.
The operation code named ‘Operation Justice’ was initiated by the newly appointed Act. Police Chief Deshabandu Tennakoon cheered on by the country’s Public Security Minister Tiran Alles.
Some 2,166 persons including 88 females were arrested along with an assortment of drugs from local Marijuana to Ice and Heroin and other synthetic narcotic substances, the official said.
He said the bulk of those arrested were from the densely populated Western Province that includes the commercial capital of Colombo notoriously known for the local drug trade and criminal gangs.
Among other that were arrested were court dodgers, drug users and persons of interest into several ongoing police investigations.
While 66 persons were placed under the draconian ‘detention order’ for further questioning another 226 were sent for drug rehabilitation at Government-operated facilities, the official added.
The operation that began on December 17 (Sunday) will continue until Christmas Eve, he said.
Earlier the Public Security Minister Tiran Alles vowed to crackdown on underworld elements following a sharp rise in contract killings and drug related criminal activities.
However Alles and his Police Chief Tennakoon have come under repeated criticism from lawmakers, human rights activists and others who claim that the so-called special anti-crime operation was purely a ‘road show’ aimed at gaining public confidence.
Tennakoon along with four other officers was recently found guilty by the country’s highest for torturing a suspect who had been arrested for suspected theft and the group was ordered to pay compensation from their own pocket to the victim.
The court was told that Tennakoon had stripped the victim naked and later whipped him with a rubber hose and forced the man to apply a stinging balm on his genitals.
Tennakoon was the Police Superintendent (SP) for that particular area at that time.
Not only that the court also directed the National Police Commission to carry out a thorough investigation into the allegations made against Tennakoon and the others at the very earliest.
