Kalutara shooting--Army deserters involved: Police

The investigation into the killing of underworld kingpin ‘Samayan’ and six others including two prison guards, has revealed that about six well-trained gunmen believed to be army deserters had ambushed the bus and shot at the Kalutara prison inmates, a senior police officer said today.

Investigations have also revealed that there was sufficient evidence to indicate that rival underworld leader ‘Angoda Loku’ was among the assailants and had led the attack.

Although the police suspect the involvement of Southern-based underworld leader ‘Matara Madush’ in the shooting, evidence collected so far did not show his presence among the gunmen.

A senior police officer told the Daily Mirror that ‘Matara Madush’ had been identified as the underworld leader whose followers were made of the largest number of deserters with weapons training.

‘Matara Madush’ is known to have fled the country in 2000 to Dubai but the police suspect whether he had returned to the country via a sea route from South India.

Several police teams conducting investigations have also focused their attention on sea routes which the suspects might be attempting to use to flee the country because of increased vigilance at the two international airports in Katunayake and Mattala.

Sources said the use of sea routes was a possibility because ‘Matara Madush’ was known to be a chief lynch-pin in human trafficking operations in Sri Lanka owning about five multi-day deep sea trawlers.

Meanwhile, sources at the Colombo Crime Division said they were working on certain leads and believe that the assailants were still hiding somewhere in the country. (Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana and Thilanka Kanakaratna)