During the past year, police had carried out 227 raids on illegal sand mining activities in the Mahaweli River in Kandalkadu, where the recent clashes occurred with the Navy, Police Media Spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekara said.
During these raids, police had arrested 229 suspects, while 366 cubes of sand had been confiscated, together with 111 tippers and 116 tractors used to transport the illegally-mined sand.
Meanwhile, Navy Spokesman Lt. Com. Isuru Sooriyabandara told the Daily News that of the four Navy personnel still receiving treatment in hospital, three had been transferred to the Navy hospital in Trincomalee while one of the injured, whose condition is somewhat serious, had been transferred to the Navy General Hospital in Colombo.
A group of Navy personnel, acting on a tip-off received, had arrived near the Savaru Bridge in Kinniya, Trincomalee, on January 29, to arrest a group of suspects involved in illegal sand mining activities.
Upon seeing the Navy, the suspects had fled the scene, while two of the racketeers had jumped into the river in an attempt to flee from the navy men, but had drowned.
This resulted in a tense situation between the residents of the area who had gathered at the location and the navy personnel, who were on the raid.
Investigations into this incident is being carried out by the Police, while the Kinniya Police had requested for TV footage of the clash for their investigations.
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