# Prevention of Terrorism Act (1979)

URL: https://allhistories.com/sri-lanka/timeline/1979-prevention-of-terrorism-act
Location: Colombo, Sri Lanka
Themes: main-event

The Prevention of Terrorism Act was first enacted as a temporary law in 1979, as violence by Tamil militant groups in the north began to grow, and was made permanent in 1982. It gave the police wide powers to search, arrest and detain suspects and created offences that do not exist in ordinary law. Under the Act a suspect could be held for up to 18 months on a renewable ministerial order, and a 2022 amendment reduced this to 12 months. Failing to tell the police the whereabouts of a person described as a terrorist, or sheltering such a person, carried heavy prison terms, although the Act does not define a terrorist. The Act was used throughout the civil war and afterwards. International human rights bodies have criticised it: the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled that the detention of the poet Ahnaf Jazeem under the Act, which began in 2020, violated international law. Its status after 2022 should be refreshed from a current source. At this point in the timeline (1979), President J. R. Jayewardene (4 February 1978 – 2 January 1989) was head of state of Sri Lanka; Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa (6 February 1978 – 2 January 1989) led the government.

## Why it matters
The Act became the legal backbone of emergency-style security policy for decades, and calls for its repeal have remained central to debates on human rights and reconciliation.

Ruler at the Time: [J. R. Jayewardene](https://allhistories.com/sri-lanka/rulers/j-r-jayewardene-372)

Prime Minister: Ranasinghe Premadasa (United National Party)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Prevention of Terrorism Act (Sri Lanka)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevention_of_Terrorism_Act_(Sri_Lanka))
- [Wikipedia — Sri Lankan Civil War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_Civil_War)