Sri Lankan Army soldiers harassing anti-government protestors? (PHOTO) Find out the truth…

Peoples’ protests which started at the Galle Face premises, demanding the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and government to step down, has now extended for over a month. The peaceful protestors were attacked on May 09^th by SLPP supporters, and it resulted in a wave of violence which spread across the island nation. The Police along with Sri Lankan Army were summoned to streets and curfew was enforced to maintain law and order of the country.

Within this context, we noticed a misleading photo post being shared on social media related with Sri Lankan Army.

Social Media Posts

The post seen below shared with the caption “Sri Lanka Army attacks civilians” shows scenes of a clash between members from Sri Lankans Special Task Force (STF) and a civilian, while a large crowd is seen in the background.

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Looking at the comments to these posts, we noticed that some had assumed that these were the scenes of SL security forces attacking a person for looting private property, which was seen in many places in which private residences and properties were vandalized during past few days as well.

However, is this a recent image of Sri Lankans Army soldiers attacking a civilian? We decided to do an investigation on it.

Fact Check

We did a Google reverse image of the image and was able to find the original photo, which dated back to 2017.

Getty Images | Archived

The photo was captured on 7th January 2017, in the southern port city of Hambantota, by the AFP photographer Ishara Kodikara. It was a scene where the local residents along with monks and other groups were protesting against the creation of an industrial zone for Chinese investments.

More details about those protests which happened in 2017 in Hambantota can be taken from here. Archived. An episode related with that protest from 2017 can be seen below.

What is STF?

Formed in 1983, The Special Task Force (STF) , seen in these images as well as current protest grounds, is a highly skilled unit of the Sri Lanka Police, specializing in counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations.

We analyzed the recent video reports on to clashes between STF and protestors and found few instances. Here is a video which showed the scenes of clashes between STF and protestors near the Parliament entrance on May 06^th. On May 09^th also, as the clashes between GGG (Gota-Go-Gama) protestors and SLPP supporters escalated, SL police along with STF and SL Army were deployed. Here are some of the scenes of conflict on May 09th at the Galle Face.

In a statement on May 10th, Ministry of Defense said that the armed forces have been ordered to open fire on any person involved in looting public property or causing physical harm to others, as reported here

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Conclusion:

According to our investigation, we were able to find out that the photo post implying to be recent scenes of the Sri Lanka Police Special Task Force (STF) personnel harassing anti-government protestors is misleading. The original image dates back to 2017 when Hambantota residents were protesting against the creation of a Chinese Investment Zone.