Facebook icon
Twitter icon
e-mail icon

206 people arrested within 6 hours for breaching curfew

Sri Lanka’s police have arrested 206 people with a 6-hour span on Sunday for violating the island-wide curfew intended to curb the spread of coronavirus.

The Colombo Page reports that 56 vehicles were seized during the raid conducted between 6 am and 12 noon.

Sri Lanka’s police have reported arresting 6247 persons since the beginning of this curfew and seizing 1,533 vehicles.

This follows calls from civil society actors for a release from civil society actors from across the island to reduce the number imprisoned, heading the advice from the UN and World Health Organisation which maintains that prisons are “an optimal breeding ground for viruses due to their confined nature”.

Read more here: Civil Society urge Sri Lankan prisoner releases amidst COVID-19 pandemic

Shavendra Silva, the war crimes accused head of the army, is leading the regime’s coronavirus taskforce.

Read more from the Colombo page

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

For more ways to donate visit https://donate.tamilguardian.com.