By Hemantha Randunu

Police investigations have revealed that a large number of active duty security forces personnel are moonlighting as hit men for underworld gangs and a significant number of recent hit jobs have been carried out by them.

Some active duty security forces personnel leave their camps during duty hours and use their service weapons to assassinate individuals, accordign to a senior investigator. He said it was a serious development and there would be chaos if the government did not take immediate steps to halt the dangerous trend.

Some of the security forces personnel were addicted to drugs while some others were under severe financial stress, the officer said.

A senior police officer said that they had apprehended several active duty security forces personnel recently who had undertaken contract killings. Police arrested two of them while they were on their way to kill a fish trader in Ambalangoda. They were carrying their duty weapons.

The officer said that investigators faced serious problems when arresting the servicemen because their alibi was that they were on duty at the time of the crime. Unless the police are able to arrest the servicemen red handed, tracking them down and disproving their alibi was next to impossible, he said. Police have been unable to arrest some hit men who carried out a series of contract killings in the south.