Security at the Jaffna Prison has been intensified and military personnel deployed to the facility, as authorities move to head off further disturbances in a prison system that has seen unrest at three locations in roughly 36 hours.

The Commander of Security Forces — Jaffna, Major General KJNMPK Navarathna, carried out a field visit to the prison on Friday, the Daily Mirror reported. A number of military personnel have been assigned to security duties there.

On the police side, the Deputy Inspector General for the Jaffna District, the Senior Superintendent of Police for the district and officers-in-charge from several police stations in the area were summoned to the prison, where discussions were held inside the facility.

Heavy metal objects and furniture were being removed from inside the prison as part of the tightened measures, according to the Daily Mirror.

Six prisons placed under heightened security

Jaffna is not being treated in isolation. Hiru News reported that following the clashes, the Department of Prisons has moved to tighten security at six facilities — Anuradhapura, Badulla, Jaffna, Dumbara, Batticaloa and Polonnaruwa.

None of those six has reported unrest of its own. The measures appear to be preventive, taken at outstation prisons while the disturbances have been concentrated in the west and south of the country.

Hiru News also reported that a number of inmates involved in the recent clashes have been transferred to other prisons, and that 28 inmates with minor injuries were sent to the Welikada Prison Hospital.

Context

The disturbances began on Thursday night at the New Magazine Prison in Colombo, followed on Friday by Kuruwita Prison in Ratnapura and the Pallansena camp in Negombo. Three inmates died and more than 50 people were injured across the three facilities.

Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala told Parliament that intelligence reports had raised suspicions the incidents may be organised and coordinated. A meeting chaired by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake later on Friday agreed to establish a joint mechanism for inmate safety covering all 33 prisons.

The wave of unrest follows the deadly clash at Negombo Prison in July, in which 22 inmates and 10 prison officers died and inmates were redistributed to other facilities.

Sources: Daily Mirror, Hiru News.