Sri Lanka To Soon Replace Draconian Anti-Terrorism Law With New Act

The 'draconian' law, which allows the police to search, arrest, and detain suspects, became permanent in 1982.

A protest site at Sri Lanka.

(Photo: PTI)

The Sri Lankan government announced on Tuesday, 23 August, that it will replace the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) with a new security law.

The announcement comes in the backdrop of the recent detention of three student activists – Mudalige Wasantha Kumara, Hashan Jeewantha, and Buddhist monk Galwewa Siridhamma – of the Inter University Students Federation (IUSF) under the PTA.

The 'draconian' law, which provides the police with broad powers to search, arrest, and detain suspects was enacted in 1979 under President Junius Richard Jayawardene, with the objective to crush the Tamil youth's armed resistance against the State. It went on to become a permanent law in 1982.

"PTA has been there since 1979. The justice minister informed the Cabinet that a new National Security Act would be drafted by deleting the undesirable parts of the PTA," Cabinet spokesman and minister Bandula Gunawardena told the press.

The PTA has invited international condemnation and concern. "Concerned about reports on the use of the PTA in recent arrests as we refer to information given by the (Sri Lankan) government to the international community about the de-facto moratorium of the use of PTA," a European Union statement said regarding the aforementioned arrests.

Sri Lanka's economy continues to be in peril. On Wednesday, 24 August, it issued a ban on the import of 300 consumer items like chocolates, perfumes, and shampoos in order to tackle the foreign exchange crisis.

"Under imports and exports control regulations dated August 22, an import ban on a wide range of consumer items from food to machinery has come into immediate effect," the notification stated.

(With inputs from PTI.)