Police fired tear gas at the Pallansena Open-Air Correctional Centre in Dalupotha, Negombo, on Friday after a group of inmates climbed onto the roof of a prison ward and began pelting stones at prison officers.
Police, the Special Task Force, the Police Riot Control Unit and Sri Lanka Air Force personnel were deployed to contain the situation, according to the Daily Mirror and Ada Derana, whose correspondent reported from the scene.
What the inmates are demanding
Hiru News reported that the protest began over a lack of space and sanitary facilities at the camp, and over demands that the inmates’ court cases be concluded quickly.
Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala told Parliament that around 30 inmates climbed onto the ward roof after being allowed out of their cells for breakfast, and that prison officials and police were continuing efforts to resolve the situation peacefully.
Police first confirmed a “tense situation” at the facility at around 11.00 a.m., saying at that stage that no further details were available. Tear gas was used as the protest escalated through the early afternoon.
No injuries or deaths have been reported at Pallansena.
A facility that took in Negombo transferees
Hiru News and Ada Derana both noted that a group of inmates was transferred to Pallansena after the deadly clash at Negombo Prison in July, in which 22 inmates and 10 prison officers died.
Pallansena is the fourth facility to report unrest since Thursday night, after Negombo, New Magazine Prison in Colombo and Kuruwita Prison in Ratnapura. Wijepala told Parliament that intelligence reports have raised suspicions the incidents may be organised and coordinated, and that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has called an emergency meeting of prison stakeholders.
This is a developing story.
Sources: Daily Mirror, Daily Mirror, Ada Derana, Ada Derana, Hiru News.
