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| Sunday, 11 July 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Security lax led to Kollupitiya bomb blast Crime Sunday by Jayampathy Jayasinghe The horrific bomb explosion which killed four persons and injured ten, some critically, at the Kollupitiya police station last week is a grim reminder of how fragile and vulnerable the security in Colombo have become despite assurance given by the top police brass and defence officials to the contrary. According to police, many suicide cadres have infiltrated into the city and suburban areas after stringent security procedures such as travel restriction from Northern and Eastern provinces were relaxed and check-points in the city removed. Searches conducted at lodges in Colombo for suspicious characters stopped forthwith after the ceasefire agreement with the LTTE. This has enabled suicide cadres to slip through cracks to the city. Last month, police found a haul of explosives and suicide jackets abandoned under a culvert in Colombo North. Nobody knows for certain whether they were meant for a VIP politician or to cause harm to innocent civilians. But, the discovery itself was an ominous sign that certain elements were plotting once again to create mayhem in the city, sources said. The suicide cadre that blew herself at the Kollupitiya police station is a case in point. The spectre of the blast and wailing ambulances streaming into the Kollupitiya police station is still fresh in the minds of policemen who survived the blast. The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) which began investigations into the matter was able to unravel the mystery of the woman accomplice who was seen with the suicide bomber that day at Kollupitiya. She was picked up by the police and brought to Kollupitiya by the Special Task Force (STF) soon after the suicide bomber blew herself up. The woman accomplice had been identified as a native from Jaffna. Although she denied the fact that she was with the suicide bomber, under intense grilling she admitted to CID she was one S. Selvakumari (29) from Jaffna. The woman had been an employee at Minister Douglas Devananda's EPDP office in Jaffna. The minister discontinued her from employment owing to her suspicious behaviour. But, he used to help her by dolling out money on different occasions whenever she called at his ministry. According to CID sources, Selvakumari however had been approached and recruited to the LTTE organisation. She was introduced to the suicide bomber who blew herself at the Kollupitiya police station by the LTTE. It had been revealed that Selvakumari had escorted the suicide bomber to Minister Douglas Devananda's office at Kollupitiya. She attempted to escape from Minister Devananda's office when police wanted to search the suicide bomber. She was later produced before the Fort Magistrate on Friday and remanded till investigations are completed. Meanwhile, the woman suicide cadre, whose identity card found at the Kollupitiya police station after the blast, is believed to be a forged one. "The name Thiagarajah Jeyarani, residing at Manipay, Jaffna is fictitious. It is possible for anyone to obtain a forged identity card these days," police said. According to CID sleuths, the woman suicide bomber inside the police charge room had detonated the bomb around 12.16 p.m. when inspector Ekanayake had causally told the telephone operator to summon the bomb disposal squad. The bomb was to be detonated before Minister Douglas Devananda, but the suicide bomber didn't get an opportunity to meet him that day. Those who perished in the blast were Inspector E. H. M. Ekanayake, Sergeant Attygalle, Security Assistant Liyanage and Jayaratne. Ten others including civilians who sustained serious injuries are being treated at the National Hospital Colombo. The Minister of Public Security and Law and Order, Ratnasiri Wickramanayake visited the late Chief Inspector Ekanayake's quarters at Maradana and Police Sergeant Attygala's house at Stanley Tillekeratne Mawatha, Nugeguda yesterday and handed over a sum of Rs. 500,000 each to their families from the President's Fund. According to sources, the Minister of Agriculture Marketing Development, Hindu Affairs, Tamil Language Schools, Vocational Training (North) Douglas Devananda, has survived ten assassination attempts altogether. In 1983, he miraculously escaped death when his boat capsized in the Palk-Strait due to bad weather. Ten people travelling in the boat were drowned. However, the minister and another person survived by swimming ashore. He survived another assassination attempt at the Welikade Prison riot when the marauding mobs beat LTTE prisoner Kuttimani and 50 other Tamil prisoners to death. In 1993, he escaped by jumping from the balcony of his Park Road residence when LTTE cadres fired at him. Somewhere in 1998, he survived an assassination attempt while visiting LTTE prisoners held at Kalutara prisons. |
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