Several members of Kavadi dance groups due to perform in the annual procession of the Devinuwara Uthpalawanna Sri Vishnu Maha Devalaya have been arrested on suspicion of possessing narcotics, police said.
The arrests were made during a special operation carried out on Tuesday morning, hours before the Esala Perahera was scheduled to begin at 2.00 p.m.
Around 1,500 security personnel, including members of the elite Special Task Force, have been deployed for the procession, and every Kavadi dance group taking part is being searched, according to police. Officers seized crystal methamphetamine — known locally as “ice” — and cannabis from some of those checked, news agency PTI reported.
Hiru News reported that one of those detained was a drummer in a Kavadi troupe that had travelled from Negombo, arrested by Gandara police on Tuesday afternoon and due to be produced before court the same day.
The arrests came as the Kavadi ritual returned to the pageant after being called off on Sunday. Police had acted on intelligence indicating a possible armed or drone attack on the procession, PTI reported.
Security follows underworld dispute
The heightened security response follows tensions between two underworld figures over which Kavadi groups would be allowed to perform — a dispute that escalated into a shooting targeting a house near the devalaya.
PTI identified the two as fugitive drug figures Shehan Sathsara and Kanjipani Imran, both believed to be operating from overseas. According to police sources cited by the agency, followers of Sathsara were awarded this year’s contract to perform the Kavadi ritual instead of those linked to Imran, intensifying tensions between the rival groups. In March 2025, two suspected members of Imran’s group were shot dead opposite the temple in an attack attributed to the rival faction.
The Acting Inspector General of Police had recommended to the Matara District Secretary on July 26 that Kavadi group participation be temporarily suspended this year on security grounds.
That recommendation was set aside a day later. At a high-level meeting held on Monday at the Matara District Secretariat — attended by the Minister of Public Security, the ministry secretary, the Acting IGP and other senior officials — authorities decided to allow all Kavadi groups that had performed in previous years to take part in this year’s procession.
The reversal followed a week of warnings from security agencies. Police had earlier linked the tensions to a decision by the temple administration to exclude 20 of the 47 groups that applied to perform this year, after which a threatening voice recording circulated on social media. Investigators had also raised the risk of individuals connected to organised crime groups infiltrating Kavadi teams.
Tuesday’s arrests indicate that the strengthened screening regime agreed at the Matara meeting is being enforced as the procession, one of the southern region’s largest religious events, gets under way.
The Devinuwara Esala pageant dates back to the 13th century and is held in honour of Lord Vishnu, regarded as one of the guardian deities of the island. Kavadi is a devotional ritual in which participants carry elaborately decorated wooden structures on their shoulders while dancing to drums and devotional music. Hiru News reported that the temple’s annual Randoli Perahera — the concluding and largest stage of the festival — was due to begin on Wednesday (July 29), which falls on Esala Full Moon Poya Day.
