Harshana Nanayakkara told parliament on Tuesday that the prison clash in Negombo, Sri Lanka, had left 26 people dead, while 77 others were still being treated in hospitals. The minister said the unrest began between inmates on Sunday and turned violent on Monday when guards intervened.
Seven prison officials and 19 inmates were killed, and the hospitalized group included 23 prison officials and 54 inmates. Hiru showed hundreds of relatives outside the prison and hospital on Tuesday, crying and pleading for information about their loved ones.
Negombo prison and Sri Lanka's overcrowding
The prison in Negombo, about 35 kilometers north of Colombo, was holding 2,600 prisoners in a facility built for 650. Sri Lankan prisons have more than 39,000 inmates in a system with a total capacity of 10,000, a gap that leaves little room for separation once violence begins.
Nanayakkara said the clash was believed to be linked to narcotic drugs and gang rivalries, and said the initial assault was launched on inmates who acted as informants to the authorities. Prison guards then came under attack, and guards fired their weapons to control the situation and for their own safety.
Weapons, CCTV and the transfer of inmates
Nanayakkara said, "Majority of the prison officials have died due to beatings by inmates. They (prison guards) have come under a merciless attack... even by bricks and clubs," and added, "We will investigate as to how they got the weapons — whether they got it from the armory or grabbed from the guards." A small group of organized inmates destroyed CCTV cameras and a body scanner during the clashes, and some firearms fell into the hands of inmates, who used some of the firearms to shoot at guards.
Some 734 inmates involved in the violence were transferred to other prisons on Tuesday, while a committee led by a retired judge is being set up alongside a police probe and an internal investigation by the prison department. Senaka Perera said overcrowded prison facilities and a lack of inmate welfare kept prisoners in constant agitation, and Nanayakkara said the inquiry would examine "whether there were any security lapses or the congestion in the prisons caused this, and our responsibility is to prevent such incidents happening again."
