An island-wide combined raid, conducted by the Police and the Sri Lanka Corps of Military Police (SLCMP) on Thursday (9th Feb.) was able to arrest 563 Army personnel who are Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL) or considered having deserted their posts, Military Spokesman, Brigadier Roshan Seneviratne said.
This is considered as the biggest ever raid conducted on a single day.
According to him, the raids conducted after the Ministry of Defence (MoD) declared general amnesty for receipt of formal discharge from their respective regiments have so far arrested 01 officer and 960 other rankers after the general amnesty ended on 31 December, 2016.
During the general amnesty period, 10 officers and 7,816 other rankers have received their legal discharge from their respective regiments.