Over 178,000 temporary residents under scrutiny for criminal connections

Colombo, May 14 (Daily Mirror) - In light of reports indicating involvement in various criminal activities, including drug trafficking, originating from temporary residences, the police have gathered information on over 178,600 temporary residents during a two-day nationwide operation.

The programme was initiated in response to observations that individuals engaged in various criminal activities, including drug trafficking, were residing in rented accommodations outside their permanent police jurisdictions. Acting upon this concern, IGP Deshabandu Tennakoon directed the police to conduct an operation over the weekend (May 11 and 12) to gather and verify information on temporary residents within each Grama Niladhari division, as per Section 76 of the Police Ordinance Act.

During the operation, information was collected on 112,963 individuals residing in 37,183 families in rented houses and on lease across the country. In addition, data was gathered on 34,133 individuals from 10,755 families residing in rented rooms.

This included details on over 178,600 people, including 31,517 temporary residents such as house watchmen, housemaids and caregivers.

The collected information on each individual will be cross-referenced with the Arrested Monitoring Information System (AMIS), the Automated Fingerprints Identification System (AFIS) and to Police Narcotics Bureau to determine whether these people have involvement with any criminal incidents.