3 Grease devils sighted in Jaffna; They have run into Army camps and hid

 Wednesday 24 of August 2011

People angered – area residents including blind person arrested by Army : 95 civilians remanded

(Lanka-e-News -23.Aug.2011, 11.45P.M.) The sighting of three grease devils in Navathurai and Wadiri districts in Jaffna, sparked a huge commotion and a restless situation yesterday night .Consequent upon this situation two residents had been injured and heavy damage had been caused to an army vehicle, according to our Jaffna correspondent. The army had arrested the males of the area and are being held in custody within the Army camp.

Based on reports reaching us : at about 12.00 midnight three unidentified individuals have intruded into a house in the Navathurai district. The people who are gripped by the grease devil fear psychosis and therefore keeping vigil have surrounded them , when this trio had escaped and fled into the nearby Army camp. Later when inquiries were made from the Army about these suspicious individuals who entered the army camp, the army had denied having seen any such individuals. Following this denial a tense situation has resulted between the Army and the residents , with the Army shooting into the air and attacking the public. The people who had then enraged had attacked the Army with stones resulting in two civilians sustaining injuries and several Army vehicles being damaged.

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Sri Lanka: The surreal politics of ‘grease devils’

24-Aug-2011

Guest Column by Dr Kumar David 

A large number of areas outside the big cities of Sri Lanka have been gripped for the last one month by a most extraordinary panic verging on mass hysteria. The localities of Akaraipattu,  Ampara, Puttalam, Kandy, Baticaloa, Kurunegala, Kinya, Trincomalee, Badulla, Nawalapitiya, Muthur and many more have been affected. The police force is on heightened alert, troops have been deployed (though this may be counterproductive as I will explain), accusations and counter accusations are traded and the government is scrambling to salvage what’s left of its reputation. The worst affected are areas of Muslim concentration though there is as yet no explanation, rational or irrational, why this should be so. Police brass dismiss talk of ‘grease devils’ (GD) as pure myth and fantasy, President Rajapakse says there is a plot to destabilise his government and the Defence Secretary has put mosques in affected areas under military protection.  

Proliferation of incidents       Full Story>>>