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Environmental damage due to Illegal sand mining, Mullaitivu, July 2020
Four Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) personnel were injured and admitted to Jaffna Teaching hospital after a scuffle with illegal sand miners in Ariyalai, Jaffna, around 2am this morning.
The STF received information that a gang was involved in an illegal sand mining operation in the Ariyalai area. However, after arriving on the scene and attempting to arrest the suspects, they were attacked.
The illegal sand miners attacked the STF using their equipment, leaving four officers injured.
The STF has handed over two individuals accused of being involved in the illegal operation to the Jaffna Police. The Jaffna police are currently working to arrest others who escaped.
Illegal sand mining has been a long-standing issue across the North-East, not only for its extensive environmental impact but also for its role in the hostility between local Tamils and Sri Lankan security forces.
Read more here: Locals fear environmental damage and police brutality as illegal sand mining steps up
Tamil civil societies have expressed concern over this and claimed that state security forces have used the issue to extend its ruthless surveillance and targeting of locals and insist the police are taking bribes to protect actual perpetrators. In December 2019, Tamils in Jaffna protested against the rise of illegal sand mining after accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected president.
However, raising concerns about the damage caused by illegal sand mining can also be life-threatening. In April, a Tamil man was assaulted and hospitalized when confronting illegal sand miners. In June 2020, an unarmed Tamil man was shot dead by the Sri Lankan army during a supposed confrontation about sand smuggling. In 2010, Ketheeswaran Thevarajah, a Tamil youth documenting the environmental damage caused by the EPDP’s sand mining operation in Vadamarachchi, was shot dead.
