Underworld crime taking a toll on innocents, endangering public safety
An increasing number of recent shooting incidents where bystanders are being harmed is endangering public safety.
The police said most shootings happen in the western and southern provinces, where organised crime groups are active.
Police crime records reveal that around 32 shooting incidents took place over the first three months of this year, causing 21 deaths and injuring 14.
This week, two separate shooting incidents happened on Monday at Pitigala in Elpitiya and Ambalangoda. Police said T-56 rifles had been used by two individuals on motorcycles.
However, police have not yet confirmed whether the two shootings were done by the same group.
The striking difference between the two incidents was that bystanders were injured.
The Pitigala shooting caused two deaths and three injuries. The dead were identified as Sasith Madhushanka, 32, from Karandeniya, and Kavishka Anjana, 28, from Thalgaswewa.
The two assailants on a motorcycle had approached a shop at Pitigala to kill the shop owner, but he had fled. Instead, bystanders were harmed.
Police believe that the gunman used the burst setting in a semi-automatic T-56, and bystanders were hurt as a result.
A separate incident occurred at Galagoda, Ambalangoda. Two people
were killed, and two more were injured. The dead were identified as Udesh Maduranaga and Sithum Sanjana.
Following the killings, Special Task Force (STF) officers began patrols in Ambalangoda, Balapitiya and Kosgoda areas and near bus stops and fresh food markets.
More gang-related activities occurred in the southern province. Most cases were reported from Ambalangoda, Kosgoda, Pitigala, and Balapitiya areas.
Nihal Thalduwa, the Deputy Inspector General in charge of crimes and police media spokesman, reasoned that most incidents occur in the Western and Southern provinces, as most organised crime groups are based and active in these areas.
“The common practice among gangs is to target members of rival organised crime groups over drugrelated disputes, or to settle scores by killing rival gang members,’’ he said.
The incidents were not only in the Southern Province. Another shooting took place at Mattakkuliya in the Alliwatta area on Tuesday.
Two gunmen had arrived at the residence of their target, “Aliwatte Viraj”, and had fired with a revolver.
One shot had struck the wall of the house.
Following the incident, relatives of Viraj threw stones and damaged four houses belonging to the suspect shooters. Police have arrested Viraj and another 19-year-old suspect.
Meanwhile, Senior Deputy Inspector of Police (SDIG) in charge of the Southern Province, Sajeewa Madawaththa, said that though it was bystanders who had been harmed in two incidents, organised crime groups' target was rival gang members.
“Organised crime groups are linked to drug-related crime. So, we set up roadblocks and checked houses that had been rented.’’
He confirmed that more police and STF officers had been called up in Ambalangoda, Kosgoda and
Balapitiya and elsewhere.
SDIG Madawatta said the distance between police stations and the scale of the areas to be covered are challenges.
Following the shootings this week, the Inspector General of Police visited southern police areas and asked to increase the number of officers.
Meanwhile, a victim of a shooting last year who refused to be named due to security reasons said that he was shot while he was riding his motorcycle.
Two men wearing full-face helmets and blackish outfits came after him on a motorcycle, and the pillion rider shot him, he said.
He reasoned that he had been targeted because he had given evidence to the police against an organised criminal group.