Hard on the heels of contaminated fuel that ruined over two thousand motor vehicles, a large quantity of cement imported from Pakistan by the Sri Lanka National Co-operatives Board has been surreptitiously released to the market without quality certification, the Customs revealed yesterday.

Defence authorities have ordered a crackdown on vigilantes hunting down the so-called “grease yakas’ after five people were killed and several wounded in the ongoing drama which has reached such disturbing proportions that leave for policemen in the east has been cancelled with immediate effect.