(AFP)--Six people were killed in two incidents of apparently gang-related violence in Sri Lanka Friday, police said, despite a tough crackdown ordered last week.
Five were found burned to death in a van on a remote stretch of road outside Colombo, their bodies too charred to be easily identified. "This looks like some kind of revenge attack," a senior police official told AFP.
"An investigation is under way to identify the victims. We suspect this has something to do with gang rivalry." In a separate incident, gunmen burst into a home in the island's south and opened fire, killing a woman and wounding her husband, police said.
No arrests have yet been made over the deaths, which come days after President Maithripala Sirisena drafted in the military to help tackle a surge in gang-related shootings.
Security forces have been asked to conduct joint operations with the police to dismantle crime networks responsible for drug smuggling and extortion rackets. Police have also re-introduced road blocks, a common sight during the decades-long Tamil separatist war that ended in May 2009.
The UK government has unveiled a package of reforms to simplify imports from developing countries which allows for more garments manufactured in Sri Lanka to enter the UK tariff-free.
Read these and more on tomorrow’s edition of the Sunday Times
Cabinet has approved the appointment of Commodore (retired) M.B.N.A. Premaratne of the Sri Lanka Navy, as the new Commissioner General of Excise.
Villagers in Nirmalapura, Daluwa, Norochcholai today staged a protest over an incident where a group of Navy officials and sailors had assaulted a resident in the area over night, Police said.
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