Tension in Ampara town
Four shops and a place of religious worship were damaged and three people injured in a clash between two groups in Ampara town and is said to have flared up after some tablets were allegedly found in a meal served by a wayside restaurant to a customer.
The incident had first taken place at the restaurant in the vicinity of temple junction in Ampara on Monday night and the officers of the Ampara Police had come to the scene and launched investigations.
Later an angry mob had attacked several shops in the area with the police finding it difficult to bring the situation under control. Thereafter, police reinforcements had been rushed from nearby police stations and the mob dispersed with the assistance of the STF.
Senior DIG (East) Kapila Jayasekera and major General Mahinda Mudalige, General Officer Commanding – 24th Division and Ampara District Secretary P. Wanigasinghe had also arrived at the scene.
As a precautionary measure, these officers took steps to safeguard all vulnerable religious places of worship in the Ampara Town by deploying the army, police and the special task force and the questionable food referred to the government analyst for further investigations.
Amid discussions held with the Maha Sangha, parliamentarians and the security forces, it was resolved to prevent such incidents in future.
Senior DIG Kapila Gunasekera of the Eastern Division said he was taking steps to arrest the members of the mob and that security would be provided to all the places of religious worship until the unrest subsides.
(Source: Daily Mirror – Wasantha Chandrapala)
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People taking law into their own hand cannot be appreciated. This is an accused case of adulterating food with a tablets. Without a proper forensic examination it is difficult to say whether this is some birth control tablets. Well, this is not the first case of this kind. In a bakery near a leading girls school in Kandy cakes were sold with undissolved tablets. Then, some vedenrs in Colombo were caught having large stocks of birth control tablets originated from Turkey. There will be no smoke without a fire. Government has to take these allegations seriously and do an impartial investigation and clear all doubts (but god sake not another commission!). In the recent past there were many incidents where ordinary folks take the law into their own hands. In Batticolawa a trained was stoned and damaged by angry mobs just because a female committed suicide due to domestic violence. Then, a Sinhalese lorry driver was mercilessly attacked for not reducing speed. Some times I wonder whether there is a government in Sri Lanka or the country has gone to dogs. It can be; because Chinese say this is the year of the DOG!