Five men have been arrested on suspicion of carrying out illegal excavations in search of artifacts in the Hingurakgoda area, police said.
The arrests were made on Sunday (6) during a raid by officers from the Hingurakgoda Police Station, acting on information about digging under way in the Thalpotha area of the Hingurakgoda Police Division, Ada Derana reported.
Police said the suspects had been excavating with the intention of searching for artifacts.
The five are aged 19, 26, 45, 47 and 49, and are residents of Polonnaruwa and Pulasthigama.
Context
Hingurakgoda sits in the Polonnaruwa District, within one of the most densely archaeological regions in Sri Lanka. Polonnaruwa served as the island’s capital from the 11th century and its ruins form a UNESCO World Heritage Site, while the surrounding countryside contains large numbers of unexcavated monastic and settlement sites.
Unauthorised digging for buried valuables — often driven by folklore about hidden treasure — is a persistent problem around such sites and is an offence under Sri Lanka’s antiquities legislation, which vests ownership of undiscovered antiquities in the state and requires a licence for excavation.
Police did not say whether any artifacts were recovered in the raid, what equipment was seized, whether a specific archaeological site was targeted, or when the suspects would be produced in court. The Department of Archaeology has not commented.
Further investigations are being conducted by Hingurakgoda Police.
