[1] It was used by the Counter Subversive Unit of the Sri Lanka Police during the 1987–89 JVP insurrection to detain persons who were linked to or suspected to have links to the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), as part of the counterinsurgency campaign launched by the United National Party (UNP) government led by President Ranasinghe Premadasa.
Unlike in the previous uprising, the JVP relied heavily on the use of assassinations of important religious and political figures, subversion, and terror attacks.
[8] In 1994 President CBK put the blame on Opposition UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was the Education Minister in 1987, has been accused of being the main political authority behind the alleged detention centre.
In its report, the commission recommended the government to take legal action against then-opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and to strip him of his civic rights, which would have made him ineligible to run for elections.
No legal action has been taken against Wickremesinghe by any government to date, however, and many who were arrested for their involvement in the alleged killings have been revealed to be from organizations such as the Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya, a political party founded in 1984 by Kumaratunga and her husband Vijaya Kumaratunga, who was assassinated in 1988.