GANG STORMS LEADER JOURNALIST'S HOUSE

Gang who entered journalist's home ....
nabbed by police on 119 call ....1 dead

 
    A certain gang had entered the house of Associate-Editor of Sunday Leader, Mrs.Mandana Ismail Abewickrema in Bambalapitiya in the early hours of morning yesterday and because of a phone call to 119 emergency service the police who came to the premises managed to round up the gangsters and it is reported that after gunfire on them, one of the gangsters had died. The journalist or any of her family members was not hurt in the incident.

  This incident had occured around 3 in the morning yesterday. While Mandana and her husband had lived in one part of this house, another part of the house was occupied by her mother and the others. Mandana's husband Romesh Abeywickrema too was an employee attached to the Sunday Leader newspaper; but last night he had been away from home on some official duty.

  Mandana who heard a noise while sleeping had awakened from her sleep around 3 in the morning and noticed an unknown person
moving around in her room. She had also seen that some other persons too had entered the house together with this person.

 Immediately Mandana had questioned as to who he was and then the man had kept a sharp knife at her neck and frightened her saying that what they needed was a certain document. She had then replied asking him to take anything they wanted without hurting her and had thus allowed permission to search the house. Then they had replied: "We got a contract to take you and this document", Mandana explained the incident later.

 She had said that at the moment te gangsters fled after entering through a window in the house, they had kept the back door open for them to get away. Further, they had disconnected wires of the land phone in the house and at the moment  she was frightened.  The battery of her mobile phone too was dislodged by them. As a result, Mandana was not in a position to inform the police about what was happening and had not even left room for her to alarm those in the other part of her house.

  The gang had kept on searching all her documents from about 3 - 5 in the morning while isolating Mandala in a room.

  Mandala's husband who was way from home had returned around 5 when all this was happening. As there was no response from Mandala's mobile phone or the land phone he had approached the house with some suspicion. His suspicion aggravated because sometime back a cat had been killed in front of the house and there had also been threats. When he closed upon the  house he noticed the back door of the house opened as had never been before. As he immediately realised that somebody had entered the house, he promptly phoned thew 119 emergency hotline and Mandala's husband Romesh had explained the situation.

 The police who got into action sent a team of policemen to the house. The police who surrounded the house wrestled with the gang and finally were able to get them under control. But as a result of a serious cut injury a policeman sustained  serious injuries during the tussel and had to be admitted to hospital. This combat ensued between 5 members of the gang and a team comprising a sub-inspector and 2 police constables and it is further reported that 1 person in the gang died from police gunfire.


  Mrs.Mandala Ismail apart from working as an Associate Editor of the Sunday Leader   she had also worked as the media trade union leader and according to what she said, she has had to face a number of threats in the past. After the incident, steps have been taken to provide strong protection to her house. Those who were taken into custody are being interrogated.

Pix Courtesy -Sunday Leader,Rivira