STF battle criminal gang

Three killed; Air-conditioned basement found in Maligawatta three storey building:

Chandrika Perera and Vijayani Edirisinghe

In a shoot out with the Police Special Task Force, three key underworld men were killed early yesterday at Maligawatta.

The shoot out took place in a three storey building at Maligawatta, Colombo and the underworld figures Faaji, Army Toji and Saadi were killed in the exchange of fire with the STF.

The three storey building was the home of Faaji and the three underworld men wanted in connection with drugs, murders, rape, extortion and who had frightened the people of Maligawatte and its neighbourhood and were leading luxurious lives, police said.

People in the neigbourhood who had witnessed the Wild West style exchange of fire between the STF and the three underworld men which lasted about 15 minutes, said it was like watching an early Hollywood cowboy film.

Police said they seized two T 56 assault rifles, a CZ type automatic pistol, five hand grenades, two mobile phones and a stock of live ammunition from the premises.

The three men who had gone underground sometime back had recently returned to Maligawatta and were planning a major crime when the STF intelligence unit had got information about it.

Therefore a team of STF men had gone to arrest the three men when they desisted arrest and started shooting at the STF from the roof top of the building.

When the STF returned fire, Faaji and one of his associates were killed and the third underworld figure died after admission to the Colombo National Hospital, police spokesman Senior DIG Nimal Mediwaka said.

When the police inspected the premises where the shootout took place, they found an airconditioned basement with a concealed entrance through a pantry cupboard in the kitchen. The basement was furnished lavishly with beds and furniture.

Warrants for the arrest of the three men had been out in a number of criminal cases before Courts and they were among the most wanted men comparable to the drug baron Potta Naufer, who had led the underworld gangs and was convicted for the murder of District Judge Sarath Ambepitiya or Aanamalu Imitiyaz who succeeded Potta Naufer, police said.

The raid was conducted under the direction of DIG K.L.M. Sarathchandra, Commandant STF.