The Central Crime Investigation Bureau has been formally declared a place of detention under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No. 48 of 1979, by an Extraordinary Gazette notification issued by President and Minister of Defence Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
The notification was published as Extraordinary Gazette No. 2509/11, dated 6 October 2026, and was made under Section 9 of the Act, the Daily Mirror reported. Hiru News carried the same notification, also attributing it to the President.
What the gazette specifies
The schedule to the notification names a single location: the Central Crime Investigation Bureau, Department of Labour Secretariat Building, 7th Floor, Colombo 05. Section 9 of the PTA empowers the Minister to specify by order the places at which persons detained under the Act may be held.
The facsimile of the gazette published with Hiru’s report carries the same number and date on its masthead and names the same Colombo 05 address in its schedule. It also carries a detail neither newsroom’s copy mentions: the order is signed at Colombo on 17 September 2026, nearly three weeks before the gazette was published. Neither filing explains the interval.
The context neither filing supplies
The designation comes while Parliament is considering legislation intended to replace the PTA itself. The Protection of the State from Terrorism Bill was given its first reading on 6 October, having been gazetted on 22 September — meaning this detention order is dated the same day the Bill meant to supersede the PTA reached the House. The PTA remains in force in the meantime, and an order made under it continues to have effect until it is repealed or revoked.
Neither outlet reports whether the CCIB previously held anyone under the Act, whether any other sites were added or removed by the same notification, or why the Bureau was designated now. No comment from the Ministry of Defence, the police or the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka appears in either filing.
A note on naming: the Daily Mirror and the gazette schedule render the body as the Central Crime Investigation Bureau, while Hiru’s English headline calls it the “Central Crimes Investigation Bureau” and its own URL uses “Central Criminal Investigation Bureau”. All three refer to the same unit.
Sources: Daily Mirror, Hiru News.
