A 44-year-old man was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in the Vettumakada area of Kalutara South in the early hours of Thursday, police said.
A group that arrived in a car opened fire on the victim while he was travelling on a motorcycle, according to NewsFirst. The wounded man was rushed to Nagoda Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
Police identified the deceased as a resident of the Vettumakada area who ran a beef slaughterhouse as his business, NewsFirst reported. Newswire said the killing took place in the early hours of May 28 and that an investigation has been launched. No motive has been disclosed and no suspects have been named.
The shooting is the latest in a string of targeted killings on the southern and western coasts in recent weeks. A man was murdered in Dharga Town in Walipenna on May 23 and a suspect in a separate Dikoya double-murder briefly escaped police custody before being recaptured, while an Ahungalla shooting linked to a local organised-crime figure produced an arrest earlier in the month.
Police arrested two suspects in connection with the killing on June 1, including the main suspect, after a targeted raid along Club Mwatha in Kalutara town, NewsFirst reported. Officers recovered a quantity of the narcotic substance known as “ice” — crystal methamphetamine — from the suspects, pointing investigators toward a narcotics-linked motive for the targeted attack on the slaughterhouse operator.
