Sri Lankan ex-defence secretary questioned over floating armouries

Sri Lankan police Friday questioned the country's former defence secretary over his alleged connections with two security firms, the police said.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the brother of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was questioned at his residence in Colombo over the armouries maintained by Avant-Garde Security firm and his alleged links with Rakna Lanka Limited, Xinhua news agency reported.

The security firms are under investigation over floating armouries and other alleged malpractice during the rule of the former government.

Avant-garde and Rakna Lanka are private security firms in the island nation that provide security to ships against Somali pirates. The companies were formed in 2012 to replace the foreign companies which ran these services. Their weapons were also stored in the armouries of the Sri Lanka Navy.

The police, last month, seized a large haul of weapons found inside 12 containers on a ship in the southern part of the country and investigations revealed that the weapons belonged to the Avant-Garde security firm.

The police said the weapons were found on the "Mahanuwara Naukawa" ship which is registered in Sri Lanka and added that 3,000 weapons were found in the 12 containers.

The police, soon after, also searched the Rakna Lanka armoury located in Colombo for illegally stored weapons.