Five dead bodies found in Sri Lanka's south

Colombo, Aug 26: Sri Lankan police discovered bullet-riddled bodies of five unknown personnel from a canal in the southern outskirts of Colombo.

'' The Panadura police on Friday morning found the dead bodies from the Golukotuwatte canal in Pinwatte area, Panadura this morning on information received from the public,'' a defence ministry report said.

'' According to the information available, it was the result of rivalry between two underworld criminal gangs,'' it said, adding that further investigations were underway in this regard.

Police sources said the victims were returning on motorbikes from a funeral when they were gunned down by their rival underworld gangsters.

Recent reports indicate that most of the underworld gangs were men who deserted the armed forces.

The government has granted several amnesties for the army deserters to rejoin the army, but it did not yield a major success.

UNI