Anti-drug operations and citizen rights

Police Spokesman Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) F.U. Wootler disclosed this week that over 5.6 million people have been searched between January and September 2025 as part of a nationwide operation to detect illegal drugs and weapons.

There were also around 10,000 arrests during the same nine-month period.

The searches are part of a nationwide Police initiative with the Space Task Force (STF) joining the regular Police to carry out the operations, he said.

All these spot checks, including body searches, etc., are happening at a time when there are no emergency regulations in place in the country and the normal law prevails. The ongoing operation is similar to the ‘Yukthiya’ program undertaken by the sacked former IGP Deshabandu Thennakoon which came in for criticism both locally as well as from the United National Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

The ongoing operation has no name but the tactics are the same. People are randomly stopped on the roads and other places and subject to ID/body searches, etc. There have been instances where people have been taken to police stations for not having their National Identity Card (NIC) when the requirement to carry the NIC with you at all times is no longer applicable with no emergency situation in the country. People do carry the NIC with them when they go out for good measure but harassing people for not having an NIC at some random checkpoint should not be tolerated.

It is understandable that IGP Priyantha Weerasooriya is keen to showcase the anti-drug campaign as a success story and make it the feather on his cap. The arrest of many wanted Sri Lankan criminals overseas and their subsequent extradition must be lauded but overenthusiasm with regard to anything, mainly to please political masters, will be a mistake.

Just this week there was a Supreme Court ruling on a case dating back to 2016 where the Court ordered six police officers attached to the Kottawa Police Station to pay Rs. 1 million in compensation to an omnibus operator who was subjected to inhuman treatment.

The victim, an omnibus operator, had been forcibly made to kneel on a public street by the police officers thus subjecting him to humiliation. Such acts are all too common and it is hoped that the court ruling will send out a message to those police personnel who think they are entitled to torture, humiliate and harass members of the public just because they wear a uniform.

There was also the case at Mount Lavinia courts this week where an argument between lawyer and a policeman got out of hand and while investigations are underway to ascertain what transpired, scenes of the policeman involved in the incident being garlanded and carried on the shoulders of a misguided crowd raises questions about discipline in the police.

The comprehensive report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Sri Lanka released in September raised concerns over the routine use of torture and other forms of ill-treatment, and custodial deaths.

The report referred to the high-profile case of Sathsara Nimesh who died in police custody in April 2025, amid allegations of torture at Welikada Police Station. The Government informed OHCHR that there were 13 cases of custodial deaths since 2024; that two officers were suspended over Nimesh’s death; and that, since 2024, the Special Investigation Division has investigated six torture and two illegal arrest cases by police officers.

Given the poor track record of the Sri Lanka Police vis a vis its relations with the public as well as the failure to carry out proper investigation into cases of custodial deaths, torture and other forms of harassment by the Police, the so-called anti-drug operations should not become just another means to harass members of the public and violate their basic rights as citizens.