Minister of Public Security Tiran Alles said yesterday (28) that the Police Department is working on a non-political agenda and is always committed to protecting the law and order of the country at the highest level.
He was attending a press conference held at the President’s Media Centre.
The minister said that the programme to suppress the underworld has already been implemented under the instructions given by President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
“It has been about a year since the current government took office, so not everything can be accomplished within a year. However, the Police Department has undertaken a significant amount of work. The Police Department currently comprises around 85,000 officers. The ministry has developed a special programme to eradicate narcotic drugs from the country.”
“Underworld activities in the South have been on the rise consistently. Due to this, the Special Task Force, the police and other security forces jointly started special operations in such areas. As a result, it has been possible to eliminate to some extent the underworld activities in the southern province.”
“At present, there are a number of reports of shootings between groups of underworld gangs. They murder each other. Necessary measures have already been taken to stop such activities of the underworld gangs. Security forces have also been instructed to shoot if necessary. As a responsible government, no activity that harms the lives of the people will be tolerated.”
He alleged that the Catholic Church hadn’t given the government an opportunity to thrash out all issues regarding the continuing controversy surrounding the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage. An opportunity had been sought after the entire report, including the sections that hadn’t been available to the Church, was handed over.
Unfortunately, the Church, instead of sitting down with the government, and law enforcement authorities involved in the investigations, to frankly discuss all outstanding issues, had turned down that request, Minister Alles said.
He found fault with the Church for repeating accusations without cooperating with the government to ascertain the truth.
“We have taken steps to register all NGOs with the National Secretariat for NGOs and measures will be taken to prohibit any NGOs that are not registered,” he added.
