VILLAGERS’ PROTEST AGAINST STF MINING AT VILACHCHIYA

Armed STF personnel had forcibly entered the village, had been seen by villagers digging a plot of land adjoining a paddy field in search of hidden treasures:

Police had arrived to save them from the angry villagers:

Today, there had been arguments, clashes between factions of angry villagers of Vilachchiya in the Anuradhapura District and the armed STF forces after the villagers had observed in the wee hours of the morning, a group of STF armed personnel had been seen digging a land adjoining a paddy field with the aid of a ‘Backo’ machine. The villagers had seen them to be actively engaged in an exercise of digging the land and instantly made angry protests through arguments.
The angry villagers had even clashed and attacked the STF personnel as they engaged in an illegal exercise. When they tried to escape they had prevented them from escaping .The STF had sought the assistance of the Police who had arrived at the place and had settled the dispute and had helped the STF personnel to escape from that location.
It is reliably learnt from ell informed sources that the STF personnel had got some clues that this particular location within the land, had hidden treasures. Their intention had been to excavate the land to get at the hidden treasures.
The spokesman for the Police had confirmed that the STF personnel had come with the intention of finding the hidden treasures embedded in that particular land. It has to be mentioned that such an exercise could not be made without the permission of the authorities of the Archaeological Department and could be made only under their supervision. This exercise of the STF had been done without any permits or under the supervision of the officials of the Archaeological Department. The related photographs could be viewed from BELOW: