Two Cases Of Police Brutality Reported Within 24 Hours Of Each Other

Sarah Thanawala

Sri Lanka and Human Rights Researcher

Global Human Rights Defence

On 22 October 2021, a police officer was witnessed and recorded assaulting two Tamil youths in Batticaloa, a city in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka (Tamil Guardian, 2021a). The individuals were kicked, slapped, and dragged for not stopping their motorcycle. Furthermore, on 23 October 2021, a police officer was seen assaulting another Tamil youth in Karuvapankeni in Batticaloa (Tamil Guardian, 2021b). The victim was covered in blood as a result of the assault and had to be attended to by the paramedics (Tamil Guardian, 2021b). 

These incidents of gross police brutality come in the light of increased police abuses including “arbitrary detentions, police brutality, torture, and extrajudicial killings”, rightfully causing condemnation from the international community (Tamil Guardian, 2021b). Appallingly, Public Security Minister, Sarath Weerasekara, has announced the prospective amendment to the Establishments Code wherein charges of human rights violations against police officers in active duty would be dropped - if charge sheets were not filed within a period of six months (Tamil Guardian, 2021c).  This amendment exacerbates the already existing backlog in providing justice to the victims of police brutality and the impending unaccountability of the police officers (Tamil Guardian, 2021c). 

Further reading and sources: 

Tamil Guardian (2021a, October 22). Sri Lankan police brutaliseTamil youth in Batticaloa. https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/sri-lankan-police-brutalise-tamil-youth-batticaloa 

Tamil Guardian (2021b, October 23). Another incident of Sri Lankan police brutality reported in Batticaloa. https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/another-incident-sri-lankan-police-brutality-reported-batticaloa

Tamil Guardian (2021c, October 18). Sri Lanka to drop ‘human rights charges’ against police officers to speed up their promotions.