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PNB officers lured into ambush by informant: Police
Scene of the crime: PC Chaminda Abeywickrama was killed and many bystanders injured when the gunman opened fire. Pix by Anurada Bandara
Investigators suspect that, the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) team ambushed on Tuesday (9) night in Piliyandala, had been lured into a trap by one of their own informants.
Last Tuesday’s PNB operation had been planned for a month, with input from the informant, according to PNB sources. Detectives had been on the trail of a drug kingpin from the south, who was allegedly distributing heroin through a group of peddlers. The informant had himself been a peddler once and had spent time in prison for heroin possession.
According to PNB sources, officers acting as buyers, had struck a deal through their informant to purchase 3 kg of heroin from a peddler. On an earlier occasion, when the officers had been asked to come to a designated location, the peddler had not shown up. Later, they had been directed to a spot in Piliyandala on Tuesday night, to buy the drugs.
Accordingly, a team of 13 PNB officers had gone to Piliyandala in three vehicles. Team leader Inspector of Police (IP) Neomal Rangajeewa, travelled in a private car with two other officers, as they were the ‘buyers’.
While the car was approaching the designated location around 8.45 p.m. it got held up in traffic near a State bank in Piliyandala at. At this point, two men on a motorbike rode up alongside the vehicle and the pillion rider opened fire on the car’s occupants with a T56 weapon.
All three officers were hit as the assailants sprayed the car with bullets. One of the PNB men, Police Constable (PC) Chaminda Abeywickrama (37), was pronounced dead on admission to Piliyandala Hospital. Inspector Rangajeewa, who has multiple gunshot injuries, is critical, and is in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Colombo National Hospital (CNH), while PC Chaminda is warded there.
Police said the gunman had emptied an entire T56 magazine. The indiscriminate fire had also struck four bystanders, three of them children. The injured children, two girls aged 7 and 11 and a 16-year-old boy, are from the same family. A 29-year-old man was also injured. They are all undergoing treatment at the hospital, while the condition of one of the girls is critical, according to doctors.
IP Rangajeewa is regarded as one of the Bureau’s most skilled officers. According to Police Spokesman Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Priyantha Jayakody, it was IP Rangajeewa who led the investigation that led to notorious drug kingpin ‘Vele Sudha’s death sentence for possessing of 80 gm of heroin. “The joint Police-Naval operation last year, which resulted in the seizure of 111 kg of heroin from an Iranian vessel, was also led by the IP from the PNB’s side. It was a tip-off he received that led to the operation,” according to DIG Jayakody.
It is believed that IP Rangajeewa had been deliberately targeted by the gunmen, because the assailants knew which vehicle the Inspector was using, suggesting prior knowledge, police noted.
Meanwhile, the “informant” who had set up the deal has gone into hiding.
The PNB officers in the other two vehicles had been unable to return fire at the gunmen due to the busy and congested nature of the location where the ambush took place. The area was teeming with civilians and the officers would have risked hitting people had they returned fire, PNB sources claimed. The gunmen had duly taken advantage of the situation to make good their escape.
Soon after the ambush, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundara visited the National Hospital to check on the injured. He had later gone to the PNB office and addressed officers there, telling them not to be deterred by the “cowardly” attack, which was a direct assault on the law itself. He had promised to provide all resources required by the PNB and had assured that measures would be taken to prevent recurrence.
Four police teams under Senior DIG (Crimes & Traffic) Nandana Munasinghe, are currently investigating the incident. The assailants’ motorbike was recovered on Wednesday (10) morning, abandoned alongside the Maharagama-Dehiwala Road. Investigators found it had been purchased for cash, on the day of the attack, from a car sale in Delgoda, using fake National Identity Cards (NICs).
Police teams are currently analyzing CCTV footage from around the area, to determine the movements of the assailants, before and after the attack.
Meanwhile, Police Special Task Force (STF) Commandant- DIG M.R. Latheef told the Sunday Times that, since the attack, the STF has also increased its operations against drug smugglers., adding that, the STF was also conducting operations to track down the attackers of the PNB officers.
PC Chaminda laid to rest with full Police honours  PC Chaminda Abeywickrama The funeral of PC Chaminda Abeywickrama (37), who was killed in Tuesday night’s ambush, took place yesterday at the Marawila General Cemetery, with full police honours. A 15-year veteran of the Police, PC Abeywickrama was considered an exceptional officer of the PNB. He had received 112 commendations for his service, according to Police Headquarters. PC Abeywickrama was posthumously promoted to the rank of Sergeant, for his dedicated service, by IGP Pujith Jayasundara He was married with two children. |