Policeman, epilepsy patient beaten to death thanks to Grease Devils; are we crazy?

A police officer was beaten to death and five civilians were shot and injured in Sri Lankan yesterday in an incident related to the fear psychosis known as Grease Devil.

The incident took place in Managunduwa in Puttalam area as some people caught a suspicious person. As they were taking him to be handed over to the Village Officer, they were shot by an unidentified group injuring five persons including a woman.

A tense situation erupted there and Navy and Army officials were deployed to defuse the tension. However, police say hundreds of e people pelted stones at the security forces. Meanwhile. a police officer was caught by the mob and his body was later found beaten to death, police say.

This incident took place before 24 hours passed the residents of a village in Vavuniya in the Northern Province brutally beat two police officers suspecting they were the so called Grease Devils.

Grease Devils still haunt in the minds of the people despite whatever the government and the security forces say in media. Yesterday, the body of a epilepsy patient who was escaping from Gileemale hospital in Kahawatta area where the Grease Devil myth originated was found 50 meters away from the hospital beaten to death.

A chronic epilepsy patient can be psychiatric too, medical sources say. Once police beat to death a mental patient publicly near Bambalapitiya beach. Now, people do it in Kahawatta.

The victim is a 37 year old father of two.

Wonder is that this killing of epilepsy patient did not hit headlines. A man, not a normal man but an epilepsy patient beaten to death and media does not care it!

Human rights organizations and the civil society also remain mostly dumbfound before the spate of violent incidents related to this mythical Grease Devil.