Sri Lankan Soldiers Operate as Gangs, Robberies on increase in Nationwide
26/Oct/2018
Military soldiers of the occupying SL Army, who have settled as Sinhala colonists in the Tamil and Muslim village of Thiriyaay, located to the north of Trincomalee, and those who engage in small businesses at Aa'ndaan-ku'lam in the Town and Gravets, are mobilising criminal gangs allegedly with the backing of the military intelligence, civil sources at the District Secretariat said.
The victims were mostly Tamil women, they noted citing some recent robberies in the district. The chain of events has caused suspicion among the people that the intelligence wing of the occupying SL military was introducing gangs as they have done in Jaffna. The squads also deploy young Sinhala-speaking boys, they said.
A three-wheeler driver robbed a Muslim female teacher of her jewellery last month on 20 August. The incident happened on her way to school.
A month later, a chain of robberies has rocked the district.
Two men riding a motorbike chased a Tamil mother who was on her way to a temple in Trincomalee last Friday and robbed her of her jewellery. The incident took place around 10:30 a.m.
The following day, on 22 September, gangs robbed two houses at Sivapuri.
On Sunday a woman was robbed while she was on her way to Kaddai-pa'richchaan from Moothoor.
As a result of the continuous reports of robberies, the Tamil and Muslim people are afraid of moving out of their houses after 6:00 p.m. in the district.