Police detect 20Kg claymore from Obeysekarapura

Mine transported in vehicle belonging to Local Government Commissioner:

Ranil Wijayapala

COLOMBO: Increased public vigilance on suspicious elements in Colombo helped Police to detect a 20 Kg claymore mine transported to Colombo from Kilinochchi when it was hidden in a backyard at Obeysekarapura, Rajagiriya yesterday.

The vehicle belonging to the Local Government Commissioner in Kilinochchi which had transported the bomb hidden inside the petrol tank of the double cab (EP GX - 8886) was detained on Monday evening, on a tip off by a civilian to Borella Police, a Spokesman for the Media Centre for National Security told the Daily News.

According to the spokesman, Borella Police had been able to detect it after conducting investigations upon seizing the suspicious vehicle.

Three people including the Local Government Commissioner and his driver were arrested for further questioning, Crimes OIC of the Borella Police, IP Gamini Hewawitharana told the Daily News

According to the Police the civilian has informed the Police about this suspicious vehicle as he observed that the people there were trying to remove the petrol tank of the double cab on Monday afternoon.

The Police later recovered the bomb hidden in the backyard of the residence belonging to a civilian in Skanda Devala Mawatha, Obeysekarapura.

According to the Police, the vehicle had arrived in Colombo from Kilinochchi on Friday and the driver had told Police that he had taken the vehicle to the place in Obeysekarapura for repairs.

The claymore mine found buried in the backyard has been made to fix into a side cap of a motorbicycle to be exploded somewhere in Colombo.

"The bomb disposal unit of the Police Special Task Force defused the bomb after it was recovered from the garden," the spokesman added. After the explosion of two claymore mines in Colombo and Ratmalana and with the receipt of intelligence reports that LTTE was preparing for a major attack in Colombo, defence authorities appealed to the public to be more vigilant. Public vigilance has helped recover claymore mines in Maradana and Wellawatta recently.