By Uditha Jayasinghe
COLOMBO, Aug 7 – Three prisoners were killed and at least 23 others injured in two prison riots in Sri Lanka, a senior official said on Friday, as unrest continued across the island nation’s overcrowded prison system.
One prisoner was killed and 10 injured in a riot that began late on Thursday at Colombo’s New Magazine Prison. A second riot at Kuruwita prison, about 80 km (50 miles) from the capital, left two prisoners dead and 14 injured, Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala told parliament.
Police and special forces brought both disturbances under control, Wijepala said. Unrest at an open prison in Negombo, about 40 km (25 miles) from Colombo, was also contained after police fired tear gas at protesting inmates, police sources told Reuters.
Heavy police and riot squads were deployed at all three prisons and prisoners who had climbed onto rooftops or moved into open areas were returned to their wards, the minister added.
Overcrowding is a systemic crisis across the country’s prison network, which holds more than 41,000 inmates in 22 prisons built to accommodate about 11,000 people. More than three-quarters of inmates are remand prisoners awaiting trial, many on narcotics-related charges.
“We have controlled the situation now. There are no concerns about security. When you take all these incidents together it appears that there is planning behind these and an attempt at sabotage. But we can only say anything further after a comprehensive investigation,” Wijepala told lawmakers.
Ten prison officials and 20 prisoners died in two days of fighting at a prison in the coastal town of Negombo, about 35 km (20 miles) north of Colombo, in early July. One inmate died and several others were injured in a riot last weekend at a prison in Mahara, about 14 km from Colombo over the weekend.
Sri Lanka is planning to amend its constitution to extend superior court judges’ tenure by two years, as part of efforts to clear a backlog of more than 1 million court cases and reduce prisoner numbers.
(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe, Editing by Louise Heavens)
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