Calm after the storm in Dompe

by Jayampathy JAYASINGHE

Normalcy returned to Dompe yesterday following an assurance given to the public by the Army and Police Special Task Force (STF) personnel who were deployed to quell the violence that erupted at the Dompe police station when an angry mob stormed the police station and attacked several police officials and torched a section of the building on Thursday.

IGP N.K. Illagakoon detailed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe the death of the suspect who died while in police custody and also the events that led to the mob attack on the Dompe police station.

Two teams from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) under the supervision of its Director, SSP Mahesh Perera recorded the statements of several persons linked to the attack and the policemen who sustained injuries when rocks were hurled at them by angry mobs. “However, so far we have not arrested any persons linked to the attack,” police sources told the Sunday Observer.

The irate public along with the mob stormed the Dompe Station and set a part of the Dompe police station ablaze and damaged several vehicles when they learnt that G.A. Gayan Rasanga (29), a suspect who was taken in for questioning regarding a theft of a water pump had died while in police custody.

The public took away the dead man’s body from the Dompe Hospital and brought it to the Dompe police station premises where they staged a protest. The mob set ablaze a section of the Police Mess, quarters, five vehicles and five motorcycles. Two policemen were also injured when the mob started pelting stones at them.

The damage to vehicles and the buildings have not been assessed as yet, police said.