COLOMBO: One inmate was killed and another six were taken to hospital after a riot at a prison near Sri Lanka’s capital on Saturday.

The violence at the Mahara prison outside Colombo came about a month after clashes at another overcrowded jail killed 10 guards and 21 inmates in the country’s worst prison riot in years.

Additional police units were sent to guard the high-security Mahara prison after rioting broke out in the morning.

“We sent STF (Special Task Force) commandos to guard the perimeter, but we are not deployed inside,” a police official said.

The official said seven wounded prisoners were removed from the jail, but one died later.

A photographer outside the prison saw two truckloads of soldiers also being deployed along with the police commandos.

Rioting at the same prison during the Covid-19 pandemic in Dec 2020 killed 11 inmates and wounded 117, leading the government to release hundreds of inmates from overcrowded jails.

Authorities announced plans shortly after the Negombo riot early last month to convert disused state buildings into prisons.

That violence intensified scrutiny of Sri Lanka’s chronically overcrowded jails, with official figures showing prisons were operating at roughly four times their intended capacity.

The additional prisons have yet to be commissioned.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2026