Fasting criminals

Monday 14th September, 2020

Most of the underworld figures who launched a fast, in the Boossa High Security Prison, recently, have given up the protest, according to media reports. The hunger strike is against the communication restrictions currently in place, and security checks on visitors, among other things. These criminals have only themselves to blame for this situation; they have been found to be running their illegal operations such as drug running, extortion and contract killing via mobile phones from their cells. They are lucky that they are not living in a country like Saudi Arabia, where the crimes they have committed carry medieval punishments such as beheading or amputations.

In the civilised world, prisoners have their rights, which must be respected, but the criminals like the ones on a fast in the Boossa prison should be allowed to realise what it is like to go hungry because hundreds of families whose breadwinners they have murdered are struggling to dull the pangs of hunger.

Among those being held in the Boossa prison are many dangerous criminals such as Kudu Naufer, who had an upright judge killed, Wele Suda, Kosgoda Tharaka, Bloemendhal Sanka, Kanchipani Imran, Ganemulla Sanjeewa, Army Sampath, Dematagoda Chaminda, Podi Lassie and Pitigala Kewma. As we pointed out in a previous comment, their private armies are at large and have among them highly trained, trigger-happy military deserters. , a few weeks ago, bluntly told a group of prison officers that his men had enough weapons and were capable of killing anyone at will. He also issued veiled threats to Defence Secretary Kamal Gunaratne and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, according to what one gathers from media reports. He has said he is above the police, and the prison officers had to do as he said. Pitigala Kewma and Podi Lassie also turned aggressive and threatened the prison officers, we are told. Ordinary people have no protection against these Napoleons of Crime.

The criminals behind bars are not bellowing empty rhetoric. They mean what they say. They are capable of carrying out their threats. They may even be having links to international crime syndicates and/or terrorist groups engaged in drug smuggling and gun running. It was recently revealed that a huge stock of illegal weapons, numbering well over 100 had been brought to Colombo from Naula in Matale. Most of these weapons including assault rifles and RPG launchers are believed to have been delivered to underworld characters. Only twelve assault rifles of this stock were seized from one of Kosgoda Tharaka’s armouries.

The need for hunting down the criminal gangs that threaten even the Defence Secretary and the Commander-in-Chief cannot be overemphasised. They have emerged so strong thanks to some venal law enforcement officers, politicians and prison officers who facilitate their communication with the underworld from prison. A journalist was also arrested recently for transporting the aforesaid stock of weapons. The underworld has infiltrated all vital sectors, and Defence Secretary Gunaratne got it right when he told a group of police officers recently that the police and the prisons had to be rid of corrupt elements colluding with criminals. He took the OICs of some police stations to task for their failure to arrest criminals and seize illegal weapons in their areas. If they carried out their duties and functions properly there was no need for special police teams to be dispatched from Colombo to arrest criminals in their police areas, Gunaratne said. One cannot but agree with him that extortionists have not spared even poor traders at village fairs. The OICs who do not care to bring criminal elements must be made to face disciplinary action and punished if found guilty.

If the government takes on the underworld with might and main and wipes out powerful gangs, the criminals in prison will have to fall in line and partake of their meals. The hubris of these savages makes even those who oppose the death penalty wonder if their ethical concerns are misplaced.