A statement to Parliament from the Minister of Justice regarding the Negombo incident.

Minister of Justice, Attorney Harsha Nanayakkara, reveals that the main reason for the recent severe unrest in Negombo Prison was that several inmates somehow got hold of weapons and came out by breaking an iron gate there. The Minister emphasized this while making a special statement to Parliament regarding the serious conflict situation that arose within the prison.

Further commenting, the Minister of Justice pointed out that the government has not taken this incident lightly or underestimated it at any point. He also informed the House that the main objective of the unruly groups was to completely disrupt the entire administrative mechanism operating within the prison.

The Minister stated that the first to be attacked in this incident were two unarmed prison officers on duty there, and that other officers had gone to the scene with the aim of rescuing them. Minister of Justice, Attorney Harsha Nanayakkara, further stated that in the face of the severe attacks, the majority of officers were brutally beaten with bricks and sticks and lost their lives.

The Minister also pointed out that the serious mistake that occurred must be properly understood, and steps must be taken to ensure that such unfortunate situations never happen again in the future. He further stated that it is essential to correctly investigate the reason or motive behind this deadly attack.

The special statement made by the Minister in Parliament is fully as follows.

“Keep this in mind, this is not a clash between inmates and prison officers. This is a clash among inmates. Two people die from it. 34 are injured. We intervene in that. We are able to bring it to a settlement.

The next morning, very quickly, while they were being given food and prepared to be taken to court, a clash started again between these two parties. This clash is between two groups connected to drugs and the underworld. The inmates who gave us information about drugs were the first to be attacked. Therefore, we believe this could be a drug-related conflict. All these facts I am stating will be confirmed after the committee reports. These are only the information I have at this moment. It may change according to investigations.

They attack and break the CCTV cameras. Not everyone, but a small group. They break the body scanner. It is understood that they crippled the mechanism that prevents narcotics and illegal items from entering the prison. Two unarmed officers are attacked. When they were being attacked, others came. The majority of officers die from brutal beatings. My respect to the officers who dedicated their lives to their duty. They break the iron door and come out. According to current information, they have obtained one or two weapons. Investigations are underway to find out how that happened. At that point, officers fired in self-defense.”