Two more suspects in Piliyandala shooting arrested

The Mirihana Special Crime Investigation Unit of the Police has arrested two more persons in connection with the shooting that killed a Police Narcotic Bureau officer and an 11-year-old girl and injured three others last month.

Mirihana Police yesterday arrested a 57-year-old and a 35-year-old, residents of Kesbewa and Piliyandala, alleged to have been involved in the shooting.

Following information gained after further interrogating the suspects, the police have seized a car and a tipper used to transport the ammunition used in the shooting. The suspects were produced before the Kesbewa Magistrate Courts yesterday.

Two armed gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on a team of officers of the Police Narcotics Bureau in Piliyandala when the team, on a tip-off, arrived to bust a large drug racketeering gang in Piliyandala on 9 May.

Police Constable Chaminda Abeywickreme was killed during the shooting and an 11-year-old girl succumbed to her injuries while undergoing treatment at the National Hospital in Colombo. Police Inspector M. Neomal Rangajeewa of the Police Narcotic Bureau and a teenage boy suffered serious injuries.

Mirihana Police and the Mirihana Special Crime Investigation Unit are conducting further investigations. (Colombopage)