Tiger bomb squad nabbed by CID

Provincial Councillor tips off:

By a staff reporter

The Special Bureau of the CID arrested six LTTE suspects, including a bomb expert and an ex-employee attached to the Colombo office of a popular Tamil MP who regularly espouses the cause of human rights violations, disappearances and abductions in Sri Lanka. The suspects, assigned by the LTTE to explode bombs targeting innocent civilians were arrested at Wattala, the defence sources told the ‘Sunday Observer’.

Colombo District UNP MP’s ex-employee identified as Nadaraja Sivaraja who worked at his Fort office had travelled to Kilinochchi several times to distribute relief during the tsunami disaster.

The sources said that he had undergone training in LTTE camps and had close connections with Soosai, LTTE Sea Tiger leader.

Nadaraja was assigned by the MP to gather information about disappearances, abductions and other human rights violations and to report them to the international community and the media while engaged in terrorist activities in the South. He had operated the propaganda campaign against Sri Lanka.

However, the group was arrested on the 13th following a tip off by a JVP Provincial Councillor whose house was rented out by an LTTE suspect known as Suresh Shanmugam.

Suresh, who claimed to be working in a computer repair shop at Kotahena, came under close scrutiny by the JVP PC Councillor as the tenant had claimed that he was unable to bring his wife and the child. Very fluent in Sinhala, the LTTE cadre had told that he was from Pelmadulla.

The JVP PC politician had complained to the Wattala Police and as there was no response, he had then lodged a complaint with the Special Bureau of the CID.

Meanwhile, the LTTE bomb expert identified as Anandaraja alias ‘Kanagan’, who hails from the North, was living at a rented house in Mattakkuliya for nearly two months. As the owner became little suspection of Anandaraja, the latter intimated Kapila Amman in Wanni on the situation, and told him that he would return to Kilinochchi shortly.

Kapila Amman who turned down his request was able to find a new place for Anandaraja through Pottu Amman.

According to Pottu Amman’s plans, Anandaraja was asked to live with Suresh who was introduced by Pottu Amman. Pottu Amman is a close friend of Sureshe’s brother-in-law and Baskaran, the noted LTTE sympathizer in Malaysia.

Anandaraja, who was in Colombo studying new ways of planting bombs and assembling the bombs to carry out his terror activities smoothly while being with Suresh, since last April.

The defence sources said that the ex-employee of the MP had also lived with Anandaraja at his rented house at Thotupola Road, Mattakkuliya. Nadaraja had invited him to the MP’s office, while helping him to keep the explosives and other items for resembling the bombs had asked him to store the explosives at this office saying that the place would not be subjected to military or the Police checks.

According to defence sources, Anandaraja changing the trend of planting bombs in buses had recommended to use handy re-cycled bags to plant bombs.

They were planning to explode a bomb last Monday, before they were arrested by the police, two days earlier. When questioned, the LTTE suspects, had revealed how the explosives were hidden in coconuts and transported to the South.

According to them, the explosives - C4 power - were neatly packed in coconuts in which the kernels were removed using a chemical and sealed with strong glue, then filling it with water at a factory in Kilinochchi.

A load of coconuts filled with explosive had been cleared through a police post in Vavuniya, as nothing suspicious was noted.

The woman LTTE suspect who had posed as the wife of Suresh and rest of the group were handed over to the TID for further questioning. Meanwhile, the police has been able to unearth a strong LTTE link in Malaysia.