News

The 175-year old high-security jail is situated in the centre of Batticaloa town. Within these walls there are about 200 inmates, including some hardcore LTTE suspects.

But ironically, none of the prison guards here are armed. Security for the inmates as well as the prison officers is provided by a police post outside the building.

Last Sunday, 12 officers had been assigned for duty at the prison, but only a jailor and three guards were present when the inmates were released from their wards for morning chores, before breakfast.

It was at this juncture, that eight prisoners, including two LTTE suspects, who were in custody for the possession of grenades, made a daring escape through the main gate. It is reported that it took only 10 minutes for the officers to realize that the prisoners had escaped but it took the police an hour to arrive at the scene.

Investigations have now revealed that the prisoners clad in sarongs and shirts had made use of the bicycles parked outside the prison gates for their ride to freedom, passing the police post and an army guard post some 200 metres away from the prison. The escapees would have had no other route to take, but the main road (Hospital road) as all the other roads end at the prison quarters. This means they would have probably gone past the Army post, some 200 metres away from the prison. (Please see map of area)

Although security within the prison premises appeared to be lax, the security was high in the vicinity, as the branch offices of the EPDP, PLOTE and the Karuna groups’ Thamil Eelam Makkal Viduthalai Puligal are located close to the prisons.

An immediate search operation was launched after the escape, but all that was found was the discarded prison uniform of one of the escapees. As of yesterday none of the prisoners had been traced and a probe has been launched.

A team including Mahara Superintendent of Prisons Kenneth Fernando and Polonnaruwa Superintendent of Prisons, C.N.N.Chandrasekara have been sent to carry out the investigations and report back to the Commissioner of Prisons Major Gen. (Retired) Vajira Wijegunawardena. They were due to officially hand over a report yesterday.

Preliminary inquiries by the Police have revealed that at least two prison guards were reportedly involved in helping the prisoners make their escape. Disciplinary action was yet to be initiated against them, but four officers on duty at the time are being charged in courts for negligence of duty.

The team is also looking into allegations that the main gate of the prisons had been left open on Sunday enabling the prisoners to escape without any obstacle.

The Sunday Times learns that Batticaloa’s Senior Superintendent of Police Maxi Proctor had raised the possibility of an attack on the Prison, or an attempt by the LTTE to rescue their cadres from the jail, in a letter to Prison’s Chief Rumy Marzook on January 5. He had apparently warned that the LTTE might attempt to free its cadres. However, to date, he says that he has not received a response.

He is not the only person who had raised concern over the security situation. Batticaloa’s Superintendent of Prisons A. Gunasekaram had asked for additional security. “I also made a request for officers to be armed. However I did not get a response,” he told The Sunday Times.

In spite of last Sunday’s prison escape, authorities have yet not beefed up the security in the prison.

The two LTTE cadres who escaped have been identified as M.Sivakumar from Samanthurai who was arrested in Kalmunai on June 11, last year for being in possession of a hand grenade and David Thevadas who was arrested on December 11, last year in Valachchenai for the same offence. Both were in remand custody when they escaped.

The others were being held for various offences including burglary and robbery. They were all from the East.

In Colombo the Prisons Department was awaiting the final report, but the Commissioner (Operations) of the Prisons Department, M.P. Sarathchandra defended the move not to arm the prison guards claiming that since the prison was located in a high-risk area they did not want to lose both, men and the weapons.

“Because of the violence in the area we were relying on the security forces to provide security,” he said.

He declined to comment about the letter sent by SSP Proctor asking Prison authorities to beef up security.

The only security precaution taken after the attack appears to be the transfer of 13 LTTE suspects to the Anuradhapura prison.

The Batticaloa prison has a history of jail breaks and attacks, including the country’s biggest jail break where more than 200 prisoners including EPDP leader Douglas Devananda and Prof. Mutthiah Nithiyanandan and his wife Nirmala who were transferred from the Welikada prison following the 1983 July riots escaped in 1984. In March last year a key member of the Karuna group Sachchi Master was shot dead inside the prisons by LTTE members.