News

A resident in Bambalapitiya reported to the 119 Police emergency number on Tuesday, the day on which EPDP activist M. Sivadasan was targeted, that a suspicious person was loitering in front of a house for four consecutive nights, but the response was said to be poor.

The suspicious person was said to have been in front of the same house in the same checked shirt and brown trousers for four nights between 10 and 11 p.m. and was said to have met other suspicious persons who arrived in a white Toyota Town-Ace van, giving them what seemed to be some sort of devices which could be possible detonators for claymore bombs.After witnessing this same routine since last Saturday, the resident had contacted the 119 emergency number to report this suspicious behaviour.

On Tuesday, the suspicious person, seeing a Police vehicle performing a routine patrol in the area had reportedly fled to the nearby hotel. The resident once again called 119 emergency number to report this and also gave the licence plate number of the Police vehicle so that the officers in the vehicle could be informed immediately.

At this point the officer who answered the call is said to have been rude to the resident and apparently ignored the report.

The policemen on patrol had, however, stopped at the same hotel but had apparently not been informed about the suspicious person.

According to the resident, after the Police vehicle left the area the suspicious person had carried on with his routine. OIC Bambalapitiya Police Chief Inspector Dissanayake told The Sunday Times that about 20 reports on suspicious persons are received at the station daily and every report is investigated as national security is at stake.

“We certainly did receive a report of that manner from such an area but I was never aware of the rude behaviour on our part. If the report came in at that time then it is our duty to investigate the matter,” he said. DIG Colombo Pujitha Jayasundera told The Sunday Times that he was appalled by this information and said stern action would be taken to prevent such incidents in future.

“Whoever answered the 119 call is not fit to be in the Police force as he obviously does not know how to talk,” he said adding the IGP should be informed of this behaviour and the officer concerned removed from the force immediately.