Full stop to sinister plan

Major catastrophe in Colombo prevented:

A major calamity planned by the LTTE to wreck havoc in Colombo during the 60th Independence Day celebrations in Colombo was thwarted by timely action taken by an alert Sub -Inspector of Police and other policemen on duty at the Vavuniya Thekkawatte check point last Monday.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Vavuniya Police Division SSP, Sirira Mendis told the "Sunday Observer" that the sinister plan of the LTTE to cause a major explosion in Colombo during the Independence Day celebrations was foiled by alert policemen manning the checkpoint.

It clearly reminds us of the detection done last year by policemen on duty at the Kotawehera\, check point in Kurunegala, where a large haul of high level explosives concealed in a lorry was discovered. That lorry too was on its way to Colombo to stage a major attack.

As far as Thekkawatte checkpoint was concerned hundreds of vehicles travelling from the North to Anuradhapura and Colombo arrive at this check point to be searched and cleared before being allowed to proceed to the South. This was done as a security measure to prevent terrorist cadres smuggling arms and explosives to Colombo to stage attacks on people and other vulnerable places.

It is interesting to know that of all the vehicles that arrived at the Tekkawatte checkpoint that morning, a vehicle belonging to the Health Department that pulled in front of the barrier at the checkpoint caught the eye of the Sub Inspector on duty last Monday.

Probably the Sub Inspector had reasons to be suspicious of the vehicle as it took more than 15 minutes to arrive at this checkpoint after passing another check point earlier. He suspected the driver had veered off the main road and gone else where to pick up some illegal stuff like heroin to be brought to Colombo.

The Sub-Inspector, after noticing the nervous behaviour of the driver and its cleaner, instructed other policemen on duty at the checkpoint to thoroughly search the vehicle. It was a difficult task to search the entire vehicle piece by piece but they painstakingly searched everything inside the vehicle. Nevertheless it was a time consuming job that resulted in a pile up of vehicles at the check point.

However it didn't take long for the policemen to notice the driver clinging on to a plastic bag which he always carried with him. The alert policemen on examining the bag found a pair of slippers that weighed unusually heavy. It made them curious further.

They ripped opened the slippers and found a substance similar to C4 explosives embedded in the sole of the slippers. Startled by the discovery, they searched the vehicle for more explosives. This time they came across a wooden log and a hydraulic Jack inside the vehicle.

They split opened the wooden log and found another quantity of C4 explosives concealed in it. A similar quantity of explosives and three detonators were also found concealed inside the hydraulic jack.

The massive quantity of C4 explosives recovered was close to six kilograms enough to cause a major explosion. They also found cash of Rs. 120,000 stashed away inside the vehicle.

Following the discovery of lethal explosives Police took in for questioning the driver, its cleaner and a Public Health Inspector (PHI) who travelled in the vehicle. Police said the PHI had boarded the vehicle at Vavuniya while it was on its way to Tekkawatte. The vehicle belonged to the Superintendent of Health Service's office at Vavuniya. The routine check done that day (28th January) yielded a wealth of information to the police.

Ostensibly the large haul of C4 explosives were being smuggled to Colombo to stage a major attack during independence celebrations. However it is not clear where the attack was to be staged or where the explosives were being taken.

The police investigating the case is tight lipped due to the sensitive nature of the investigations. But what is crystal clear about the whole thing was that LTTE's plan was to cause mayhem and destruction in Colombo during independence celebrations by exploding bombs.

On January 26 a joint army-police patrol in the Colombo city found a suicide jacket packed with high level explosives with an explosive device in a toilet pit at Panahe-watte at Arduruppuraweediya.

A senior police officer told the Sunday Observer that they suspect some person transporting the deadly suicide kit elsewhere would have dumped it in a toilet pit on seeing the army police patrol that day. Police have questioned several persons in the vicinity where the jacket was found.

The duty conscious police officers at the Tekkawatte Vavuniya check point have to be handsomely rewarded like the ones at Kotawehehra checkpoint for preventing catastrophe in Colombo.

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