Rise of underworld

Thursday 20th February, 2025

Yesterday’s shooting incident inside a court at Hulftsdorp, Colombo, must have sent a chill down the spine of every law-abiding citizen. A gunman, disguised as a lawyer, shot a suspect named Sanjeewa Kumara alias Ganemulla Sanjeewa, despite a heavy police presence at the court complex. What the underworld attack inside a heavily guarded court and the ease with which it was carried out signify is the growing vulnerability of the public vis-a-vis the rise of the underworld. Hardly a day passes without underworld attacks being reported.

Yesterday’s courtroom killing was however not unprecedented. An underworld figure called Dhammika Amerasinghe was killed inside the Colombo Magistrate’s court in January 2004. The assassin posed as a law student. An upright judge also died at the hands of an underworld hitman in November 2004. High Court Judge Sarath Ambepitya and his police bodyguard were gunned down in front of his residence in Colombo 07. The underworld proved its ability to strike at will again in February 2017, when a gang attacked a prison bus in Kalutara, killing five inmates and two prison officers.

The JVP-led NPP came to power, vowing to neutralise the netherworld of crime and narcotics in less than two ‘lunar months’. But that pledge has gone unfulfilled. A staccato burst of queries from a group of hectoring reporters on the courtroom shooting left Deputy Minister of Public Security Sunil Watagala almost speechless at Hulftsdorp yesterday. Cabinet Spokesman and Minister Nalinda Jayatissa told Parliament that the government would do everything in its power to neutralise criminal gangs. It is everyone’s fervent wish that the government will succeed in its endeavour.

It was reported yesterday that a police constable who fled the country in 2023 after aiding and abetting an abortive underworld bid to raid the CID headquarters and extract a drug baron, known as Harakkata, had been arrested in India. The suspect tried to poison a group of police personnel. The police have revealed that the gang that sought to spring Harakkata free had even hired several serving commandos. Such is the power of the underworld, which is awash with arms and money. It is against this backdrop that threat assessments and VIP security under the incumbent administration should be viewed.

Former Public Security Minister Tiran Alles continues to have STF protection in view of underworld threats to his life, according to media reports, but security provided to former President and Commander-in-Chief, Mahinda Rajapaksa, under whose watch the LTTE’s military wing was defeated has been reduced drastically.

It is doubtful whether all LTTE combatants who surrendered or were captured underwent proper rehabilitation before being released. Not all LTTE military wing members were killed or captured. On 15 May 2022, The Hindu reported that the Indian intelligence agencies had ‘warned of erstwhile cadre of the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam regrouping to launch attacks in Sri Lanka, as the country is embroiled in a deep economic and political crisis’. In December 2024, the Indian media reported that the government of India had submitted before a Delhi High Court tribunal that ‘even after its military defeat in May 2009 in Sri Lanka, the LTTE has not abandoned the concept of ‘Eelam’ and has been clandestinely working towards the cause … and the remaining LTTE leaders or cadres have also initiated efforts to regroup the scattered activists and resurrect the outfit locally and internationally’. The tribunal declared that it was of the opinion that ‘there is sufficient and cogent material on record for declaring the LTTE an unlawful association. Hence the need for former Sri Lankan Presidents and military commanders who were instrumental in defeating the LTTE to be protected by elite forces.

Meanwhile, the UK is reported to have warned that the possibility of terror attacks in Sri Lanka cannot be ruled out. Foreign travel advisories may pertain to popular tourist destinations in Sri Lanka, but the focus of a strategy to meet such threats must be on the entire country.

The rise of the underworld is not a recent phenomenon. It has happened over the years under successive governments. The NPP made the mistake of underestimating the power of organised criminal groups and pledging to wipe them out in about two months. Some of the former military and police officers in its ranks may have misled the NPP into believing that eliminating organised crime would be a walk in the park. Understanding a problem properly is half the battle in solving it.

One can only hope that the government will stop believing in its own rhetoric, make a thorough study of the complex issues related to public security and defence and redouble its efforts to make the country safe for one and all. It would be a mistake for the government to play politics with VIP security, as its predecessors did.