COLOMBO: Two inmates were killed and 15 others injured on Friday in a prison clash in Sri Lanka, the latest in a series of prison unrest in the island nation over the past month.
The clash occurred at the Kuruwita prison, 60 km southeast of Colombo, and was the second such incident in the past 24 hours. A similarly tense unrest also took place at the Colombo main remand prison last night.
The clash at the Kuruwita prison led to the killing of two inmates, while 15 others were injured and hospitalised, according to officials.
“The immediate trigger for the unrest appears to have been the detection of a package containing narcotics and the subsequent arrest. It is evident that this was a response to the government’s anti-narcotics drive,” Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara told reporters.
The minister said that in the Colombo prison incident, one inmate was killed while 11 others sustained injuries.
According to prison officials, both prison riots have been brought under control with the deployment of troops.
These incidents follow similar unrest at the Negombo prison on July 5 and 6, which killed 33.
On August 1, similar rioting took place at Mahara prison, killing one inmate.
Nanayakkara told parliament on Tuesday that the government was aware of more riots at prisons and suspected them to be organised acts of sabotage.
Rights groups blame overcrowding in prisons as the primary reason for frequent skirmishes.