Bus bomb: Rewards for passengers, bus crew

Ranil Wijayapala

Police spokesman Senior DIG N.K. Ilangakone said yesterday that Police are inquiring as to who had first tipped off about the bomb that exploded in a bus on Saturday injuring 18 people.

The Police Spokesman said that the Police had taken a statement from Ms. Indrani Fernando who claims that she first alerted the commuters about the suspicious parcel and also informed the conductor and the driver.

The conductor of the bus claims it was another person called Mervyn Fernando who tipped them off.

“The person who had tipped off about the bomb will definitely be rewarded for their timely action”, DIG Ilangakone added.

However, Colonel Darshana Ratnayake, Security Advisor to the Ministry of Transport told the Daily News that due to the action taken by the conductor and the driver, many lives were saved. “If not for their timely action around 30 to 40 people would have been killed in the bomb explosion,” Colonel Ratnayake added.

“Whatever the claims made by anybody, if the driver had not taken the bus to a safer place and evacuated passengers, the incident would have created much more destruction and loss of lives,” Colonel Ratnayake added.

“Therefore, we should appreciate and admire the action taken by the bus driver and the conductor who had set an example for other bus crew members also,” he added.

He said the incident, however, gives the impression that the efforts taken by the Security Forces, Police and the Transport Ministry have borne fruit and these systems should be further improved as opportunities are very high for the LTTE to explode bombs of this nature.

“The Transport Ministry will definitely reward the bus driver and the conductor for their action,” he added.