Assassination of Minister D. M. Dassanayake

IGP Victor Perera has detailed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe into the assassination of the Minister of Nation Building D.M. Dassanayake whose vehicle was caught up in a claymore mine explosion at Tudella in the Ja-ela area last Tuesday.

The CID special team led by a Senior Supdt. of Police will investigate the dastardly assassination that was on everybody's lips last week. The CID team of course will have a herculean task of unravelling details of the tragic assassination of the Minister and his bodyguard and others wounded in the attack. The irony is that security personnel and other civilians who survived the attack may be maimed for life.

It is of paramount importance for the sleuths to establish the motive for assassinating Minister D.M. Dassanayake when he was not even considered as a high profile target of the LTTE. But then who could have assassinated him while he was on his way to Colombo to attend the inaugural session of the parliament for 2008? True, he being a rebellious parliamentarian may have had several adversaries in his own electorate and else where for that matter. But then the question remains why did they wait so long to eliminate him outside his own electorate. Being a none cabinet Minister he wasn't a potential target of the LTTE either, to be provided with additional security personnel, sources said.

But then why did anyone plant a claymore mine in a bush at Tudella Ja-ela near the main Negombo-Colombo highway to assassinate him? Or was it that the claymore mine was aimed at some other high profile Minister who frequently uses this route. Nobody seems to know the answers. Judging from past experiences could it be the work of the LTTE?

Nobody knows whether the killers achieved their intended target or not. The public for the moment do not have answers to these theories until the CID conducts an exhaustive investigation and finds the perpetrators of the crime. The sleuths of course will have an uphill task of siphoning every bit of evidence they gather in the course of their investigation. Undoubtedly it is going to take time for them to identify the assassins.

A fortnight ago we came to know about the assassination of UNP Member of Parliament T. Maheswaran who was shot by an assassin inside a Hindu Kovil while performing a pooja at the entrance to the Kovil. Fortunately the assassin was apprehended and is being grilled by the police. But hardly a week lapsed when we heard the Minister of Nation Building being killed in an explosion that sent shock waves in the country.

The minister concerned may not have been a high profile cabinet minister but was popular among the masses in his own electorate. His white coloured Land Cruiser was caught up in a deadly claymore mine explosion around 10.50 a.m. critically injuring the Minister, a relative of his who was seated with him in the back seat and his bodyguard, and the driver in the front seat. Several other security personnel travelling in a back up vehicle too had sustained injuries in the explosion.

Soon after the blast people who gathered at the scene had to break open the glass windows of the vehicle to pull out the injured. The injured Minister along with his body guard and other security personnel were rushed to the Ragama Teaching hospital in vehicles that accompanied the minister. Although doctors at Ragama Teaching hospital tried to resuscitate the Minister he succumbed to injuries at the Hospital.

Meanwhile a policeman of the Ministerial Security Division (MSD) who accompanied the minister too died after being admitted to the Ragama Teaching hospital. Fourteen more persons injured in the explosion are being treated at the Ragama Teaching Hospital and at the Colombo National Hospital.

The spot where the claymore explosion took place was a shrub closer to the statue of the renowned singer the late Rukmani Devi. Police told the Sunday Observer that someone in the vicinity may have detonated the claymore mine with a remote control device. Owing to the deadly blast several shrapnel and iron ball- bearings had penetrated the body of the vehicle that hit its occupants.

Meanwhile another vehicle travelling in the opposite direction towards Negombo too was caught up in the blast. The vehicle was severely damaged when it collided with another vehicle. The sudden explosion created panic among residents in the area who took to their heels. Minister D.M Dassanayake was a past student of Ananda Maha Vidyalaya in Chillaw who later became a successful businessman. For a brief period he served as an officer attached to the Agrarian Services Department.

Later he took to politics and was appointed as the Chief Organiser of the SLFP in the Anamaduwa electorate. He served as a deputy minister on an earlier occasion. His wife Indrani Dassanayake is the Vice Chairperson of the Wyamba Provincial Council.