Three prison officials taken hostage by a group of inmates at the Vavuniya remand prison were rescued in a dramatic joint operation by law enforcers yesterday.

The operation was launched jointly by the Vavuniya Police, STF and the Army to rescue three jailers taken hostage by a group of LTTE suspects on Thursday.

Following a protest of prisoners at the Vavuniya remand prison against the transfer of a suspected LTTE prisoner to another location, the three prison officials were taken hostage. The suspect who was a former LTTE leader was been transferred on a court order to be handed over to the Terrorism Investigation Unit.

Prison authorities and the Security Forces then planned to launch a rescue operation to free the three officials who were held hostage by the prisoners for over 19 hours.

The rescue operation was carried out yesterday at around 11 am mainly by the STF. People from surrounding buildings were evacuated for the operation to proceed.

The STF entered the area at where the three jailers were kept by breaking a wall and through the roof.

They had to saw the iron doors since they had been locked by the LTTE suspects.

STF sources said the rescue operation, which took around half an hour was a total success as the three captured were rescued without any injury.

“The other remand prisoners were taken to the Anuradhapura prison until the situation at the Vavuniya remand prison returned to normal,” a prison official said.

By Dharma SRI ABEYRATNE
Source: Daily News (Sri Lanka)