Since a week Sri Lanka had been taking interviews for the position of a hangman. Two positions were lying vacant since an year though there have been at least 480 convicts on the death row already.

Even if the two positions were filled it is not sure that they may have work on their hands to keep them busy, since Sri Lanka a Buddhist country for the past 36 years had not executed a single person  with death penalty.

There are about 176 people who applied for the interviews which would be finished in a day or two more according to the commissioner operations, prisons department, Gamani Kulatunga. He also said talking to Reuters that the position was available for only males.

The two vacancies for the job were because one of them was promoted and another had retired.

At least 480 people convicted of murder and drugs offences could potentially be executed, Kulatunga said.

Since the Tamil Tiger separatists war which had lasted for 25 years until the May 2009 had ended, there had been a shocking rise in the number of Child abuse, rape, murder and drug trafficking cases. This had pushed both the government and the lawyers to reintroduce the death penalty to tackle the extreme cases.

(AW- Anil)