{"id":248088,"date":"2026-07-18T00:51:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=248088"},"modified":"2026-07-18T00:51:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:21:29","slug":"negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/","title":{"rendered":"Negombo Prison Bloodbath: The Failures Of The Government & The Exploded Anger Of The Prisoners\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rajasinghe Bandara<\/a> –<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"

Dr Rajasinghe Bandara<\/p><\/div>\n

It is always better to wait to comment until the dust settles in the aftermath of a bloodshed.\u00a0 On the news channels, I watched Negombo prison riots from London, and the tragic deaths of the prisoners and the prison officers who were killed during the riots. 10 prison officials and 21 prisoners died \u200bin the two days of fighting between two groups of inmates at the prison. I condemn the killing of the prison officers and the prisoners in the strongest possible terms. I saw the cry, anger and emotions of the devastated relatives of the prisoners and prison officers.\u00a0 Some mainstream media in Sri Lanka always exaggerate the cruelty of the prisoners while ignoring the circumstances of the ill-fated\u00a0 prisoners and their poor relatives.\u00a0 The government came to power promising to eradicate poverty but their priority became eradicating the drugs.\u00a0 By launching the aggressive war on drugs, the government sent a skyrocketing number of prisoners to the prisons without a\u00a0 plan to accommodate them.\u00a0 They did not see the consequence of sending thousands of suspects to the overcrowded prisons. There were complaints and reports about how some police officers had abused their power to arrest and detain some individuals on false drug charges\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Did the government give the true figure of the current prisoner population?\u00a0 It is reported to be 41000, but in their NPP election manifesto (2024) it said the total number of prisoners in 2022 was 138,581. How did the number drop to nearly 100,000?\u00a0 Did the NPP exaggerate the true figure for political gains?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/document\/766722056\/NPP-Presidential-Election-Manifesto-2024<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

(see page 115-116)<\/span><\/p>\n

Negombo Prison had capacity for about 650 inmates, but held around 2,400.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the National People\u2019s Power (NPP) election manifesto, \u2018A Thriving Nation, A beautiful life\u2019, it recognises the increase in the remand prisoner population is a major cause of prison overcrowding due to the long time it takes to complete the legal proceedings. This is a crystal clear example that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake was well aware of the critical issues in the prisons and the judicial system, and giving effective solutions for them must have been a priority of his government.\u00a0 But neither the judicial system nor prison services have been improved as they promised. Legal proceedings suffer from delays due to severe court backlogs.\u00a0 The vast majority of people waiting for justice suffer due to the delays in the courts. Even under the current government Sri Lankan courts have some of the worst backlogs and delays from magistrate courts to the supreme court.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The following attractive pledges were made in the (NPP) manifesto to improve the conditions of the prisons and the life of the prisoners;<\/span><\/p>\n

* Preventing all forms of torture inside prisons<\/span><\/p>\n

* Analysing the nature, mental status and other qualities of the prisoners and categorizing and placing of prisoners accordingly.<\/span><\/p>\n

* Expanding the facilities within the prisons, including special facilities according to international standards.<\/span><\/p>\n

* Ensuring the quality of food given to the prisoners. (pages 115-116)<\/span><\/p>\n

But according to the reports and the prisoners’ experience, appalling conditions in the prisons had gone from bad to worse since the NPP government came to power.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is reported that the prison officers had been killed brutally by the prisoners.\u00a0 This shows the exploded anger of the prisoners and the mental status of them. Why did the government let the prison authorities neglect the suffering of the prisoners for such a long time?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

President Anura Dissanayake has been in power since 2024 and the government had sufficient time to address the issues, at least the major issues. Had he taken genuine interest to resolve the critical issues, in consultations with the prisoners and the relevant parties, this tragedy would have been prevented. <\/b>\u00a0Although the minister of Justice Harsana Nanayakkara has taken responsibility for the tragedy, President Anura Kumara himself is also responsible for the bloodshed, as the minister of defence.\u00a0 The government always boasts about the ministers and advisors in the hierarchy with so many professors.\u00a0 Did they advise the president and the minister\/s about the remedies for the prisons\u2019 situations?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Does Anura Kumara Disanayake really listen to the voice of the people?\u00a0 Do the ministers listen to the voice of the people? <\/b>They have very good reasons to doubt it.\u00a0 I have my own experience.\u00a0 <\/span>The sycophants around the president have made him inaccessible to the ordinary public, like a king.<\/b>\u00a0 <\/span>They always filter the actual voice of the people according to their assumptions of what he should hear.<\/b> Although the sycophants misled him, Anura Kumara should have been sensitive to the media.\u00a0 Some of our great kings, in the history, had disguised themself and gone from village to village to listen to the actual voice of the people. As an educator and freelance journalist I published many articles to educate the government to address the critical national issues proposing viable solutions to them such as human-elephant conflict, deforestation, human-monkey conflict and invasive foreign fish which destroyed the biodiversity in our fresh water lakes, with my international experience. But many issues still remain unsolved because of lack of political will.\u00a0 For example, deforestation continues largely aggravating the human elephant conflict; invasive fish released to the freshwater lakes, by The National Aquaculture Development Authority (<\/span>NAQDA<\/b>), continue to destroy the biodiversity in our freshwater lakes including traditional fish such as \u2018Lula\u2019, lotus, and the waterweed. \u00a0 Did the government take serious interest in the disasters?<\/span><\/p>\n

Anura Kumara is very clever at delivering \u2018fairy tale speeches\u2019 in public stages about \u2018the prosperity his government brings to the citizens\u2019. \u00a0 Do people really believe him as they did in the past?\u00a0 A chief incumbent of a famous temple told me \u2018Many people now call him \u2018King Chethiya-Chethiya Rajjuruvo\u2019, the king had a reputation as a liar.\u00a0 The unrest among the farmers was created by importing massive quantities of rice from India and China when Sri Lanka had more than enough stocks of paddy to meet the needs of the rice consumers. \u2018Recent farmer unrest in Sri Lanka was heavily exacerbated when <\/span>over 160,000 tonnes of imported Indian and Chinese rice flooded the domestic market immediately before the local harvesting season, crashing paddy prices<\/span><\/a>.\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, by launching a Japan-backed safe drinking water project<\/span> in Anuradhapura President Anura Kumara said \u2018We imported rice for foreign tourists, they don’t like to eat Sri Lankan rice.\u2019\u00a0 This is a totally misleading picture.\u00a0 When tourists go to any country they like to enjoy the traditional foods of the country including rice and curries, so do they in Sri Lanka.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The government has clearly failed to deliver its promises yet, as they pledged<\/b>.\u00a0 The paddy farmers’ protests against the government demanding a reasonable price for paddy, demonstrate widespread anger and the frustration of the farming community. The harsh blows on the faces of the effigies of the minister Lal Kantha and Deputy Minister Namal Karunarathna demonstrate the frustration of the farmers. The islandwide outbreak of Dengue is another example of failure of the government\u2019s \u2018Clean Sri Lanka.\u2019 programme, even the Beira Lake next to the presidential secretariat is not clean. People travelling on the trains can feel the bad smell of the filthy water.\u00a0 \u00a0 The controlled price for rice is also not working.\u00a0 Although the maximum retail price (mrp) of rice per kilo is Rs260, people always have to pay more than Rs.360 per kilo for good quality rice such as Araliya, Amul and Ponni samba. Araliya samba is widely sold in the black market at around Rs.400 per kilo. One of the aims of the government\u2019s digitalisation programme was to improve efficiency in the government departments and minimise delays in serving the public.\u00a0 However, when you send emails to government officials including to the permanent secretaries, they never bother to even acknowledge the receipt of the email thus forcing the public to come to their offices physically if they need to.\u00a0 If you sent an email to the president\u2019s office or prime minister\u2019s office, the waiting time to get a response could be 6 months.\u00a0 In most cases there are no solutions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the deadliest prison riots in our history is a wakeup call for the authorities, to take immediate action about the appalling conditions in the sardine packed prisons. <\/b>\u00a0After the riots, the minister of Justice Harsana Nanayakkara announced that\u00a0 Bogambara Prison would be used to accommodate the prisoners.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/b>It is a wise decision although some politicians and NGOs are critical about the location next to The temple of tooth relic.\u00a0 As it was a purpose built colonial prison and the 2nd largest prison, it can be improved and developed within a short period of time to accommodate more than 2000 inmates. \u00a0 In my view it should be preserved and continued as a prison for the benefit of the prisoners. The critics should understand the priorities. Since the closure of the prison in 2014, the conditions of the buildings have deteriorated.\u00a0 The prison will help to remind the colonial legacy to our citizens and the tourists.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1552,"featured_media":248015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nNegombo Prison Bloodbath: The Failures Of The Government & The Exploded Anger Of The Prisoners\u00a0 - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Negombo Prison Bloodbath: The Failures Of The Government & The Exploded Anger Of The Prisoners\u00a0 - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-17T19:21:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Negombo-Prison-Riot.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"384\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rajasinghe Bandara\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rajasinghe Bandara\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/\",\"name\":\"Negombo Prison Bloodbath: The Failures Of The Government & The Exploded Anger Of The Prisoners\u00a0 - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Negombo-Prison-Riot.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-17T19:21:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3d75dc20fbfdbe4da64aef7c595a4f59\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Negombo-Prison-Riot.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Negombo-Prison-Riot.jpg\",\"width\":600,\"height\":384},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Negombo Prison Bloodbath: The Failures Of The Government & The Exploded Anger Of The Prisoners\u00a0\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3d75dc20fbfdbe4da64aef7c595a4f59\",\"name\":\"Rajasinghe Bandara\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b976ab862ed245fa12cb67c45d3cdfba7d1b27338b4ac1c4eb50b33fe075e708?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b976ab862ed245fa12cb67c45d3cdfba7d1b27338b4ac1c4eb50b33fe075e708?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rajasinghe Bandara\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/rblondon\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Negombo Prison Bloodbath: The Failures Of The Government & The Exploded Anger Of The Prisoners\u00a0 - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Negombo Prison Bloodbath: The Failures Of The Government & The Exploded Anger Of The Prisoners\u00a0 - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[…]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2026-07-17T19:21:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":384,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Negombo-Prison-Riot.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Rajasinghe Bandara","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rajasinghe Bandara","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/","name":"Negombo Prison Bloodbath: The Failures Of The Government & The Exploded Anger Of The Prisoners\u00a0 - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Negombo-Prison-Riot.jpg","datePublished":"2026-07-17T19:21:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3d75dc20fbfdbe4da64aef7c595a4f59"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Negombo-Prison-Riot.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Negombo-Prison-Riot.jpg","width":600,"height":384},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/negombo-prison-bloodbath-the-failures-of-the-government-the-exploded-anger-of-the-prisoners\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Negombo Prison Bloodbath: The Failures Of The Government & The Exploded Anger Of The Prisoners\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3d75dc20fbfdbe4da64aef7c595a4f59","name":"Rajasinghe Bandara","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b976ab862ed245fa12cb67c45d3cdfba7d1b27338b4ac1c4eb50b33fe075e708?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b976ab862ed245fa12cb67c45d3cdfba7d1b27338b4ac1c4eb50b33fe075e708?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Rajasinghe Bandara"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/rblondon\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Negombo-Prison-Riot.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1552"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248088"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248090,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248088\/revisions\/248090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}