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698 firearms issued to 154 politicians from 1980 to 1990 not yet returned: Defence Ministry
View(s):Nearly 700 firearms issued to politicians from 1980 to 1990 have not been returned, according to the Defence Ministry.
Statistics released by the Defence Ministry reveal 698 firearms had been issued to 154 politicians during this 10-year period but none had been returned.
The list of politicians and the firearms they had failed to return were tabled in Parliament this week by State Minister of Defence Premitha Bandara Tennakoon in response to a question raised by opposition Parliamentarian Dullas Alahapperuma.
According to these documents, the firearms were mostly 9mm pistols, revolvers and 12 bore shotguns. Some politicians had been issued multiple firearms on different occasions, including on behalf of their respective parties. Some who had failed to return firearms issued to them are now deceased.
State Minister Tennakoon told Parliament that the Defence Ministry had no records to indicate why these firearms were issued but it was probably for the protection of politicians owing to the situation that prevailed in the country during the 1980-1990 period. In answer to another question posed by Mr Alahapperuma, the state minister said the Defence Ministry had not issued any automatic firearms to politicians from 1990 to 2023. He said 9mm pistols were considered semi-automatic weapons.
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