Sri Lanka Navy divers attached to SLNS Vijaya have recovered a pistol, a rifle and 42 rounds of T-56 ammunition from the bed of Ichchankadu Lagoon in Kandakuliya, Kalpitiya, NewsFirst reported on Sunday.
The Navy said the discovery was made during a special search operation in the lagoon and that the weapons and ammunition had been handed over to the relevant authorities for further investigation.
The recovery is the second find in the same lagoon in less than a week. On June 2, a separate Navy operation in the same area pulled up 53 rounds of ammunition of various types from the lagoon bed. Two recoveries within five days in the same body of water suggest the lagoon has been used as a cache or dump site.
Kalpitiya sits on the south-western edge of the Puttalam lagoon system, a shallow, mangrove-fringed coastal zone that has been a recurring focus for naval anti-smuggling and weapons-recovery operations. The Navy did not identify the source of the firearms or say whether any individual was being investigated in connection with the cache.
The discovery comes amid heightened security activity in the wider area. Earlier on Sunday, the Department of Meteorology issued a Red advisory for very rough seas and gusts of 60–70 kmph between Kankasanthurai and Kalpitiya, telling naval and fishing communities to stay off the water until further notice. Last week, Navy and Customs personnel made several northern-corridor narcotics interdictions, and a joint Special Task Force–Army operation on Sunday recovered 220kg of Kerala cannabis in Antonypuram, Jaffna.
