• They are allowed to keep them even when they are out of office
• Cannot be transferred to a third party  

By Kelum Bandara   

Ahead of the presidential poll, all except ten out of 225 parliamentarians have already secured two repeater shotguns each from the Defence Ministry for their personal security following concerns triggered after arson on a number of houses belonging to them in the aftermath of the 2022 Aragalaya, an official said.   

A repeater is a firearm that can be fired several times without manual reloading. Such a repeater gun can be loaded with ten cartridges at once. 

  The request for two repeater shotguns for each MP was made around ten months ago by the parliamentary authorities.    Asked about the current status, a top source of the Defence Ministry said all the MPs, except ten, had already taken them after making necessary payments.   Chinese made pistols were issued to parliamentarians previously but most of them remain dysfunctional at the moment and therefore a decision was taken to issue repeater shotguns.   

The Defence Ministry has stipulated that such shotguns cannot be transferred to any third party. The MPs are also entitled to keep them even if they are out of office in the future.    A parliamentarian was tortured and killed by a group of Aragalaya members on May 9 during the height of protest.   

Besides, residences of 72 parliamentarians and the personal library of President Ranil Wickremesinghe were burned down.