Reward for woman CDF member who detected rail bomber

Rafik Jalaldeen

COLOMBO: A member of the women?s Civil Defence Force who arrested the LTTE cadre who set off the bomb on the Dehiwela railway track was promoted and rewarded yesterday.

Addressing the media, the CDF Director General Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekara said following a prompt combined operation conducted under instructions of Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and intelligence services, they were able to arrest the LTTE bomber within a short duration at the Irattaperiyakulam checkpoint in Vavuniya on Wednesday.

An LTTE cadre detonated a claymore mine on the railway track targeting an office train at Wasala Mawatha between Dehiwela and Wellawatte on Wednesday around 7.20 a.m. injuring 18. ?Subsequently after the incident, the Defence Secretary instructed Intelligence to provide information to all police checkpoints pertaining to information of the LTTE suspect with a photograph and orders to be vigilant,? Weerasekara said.

It was a courageous act to detect and arrest the LTTE suspect by a woman CDF member who had manned one of the important checkpoints in Medawachchiya.

?It is important to highlight that a woman CDF was able to act courageously to recognise the LTTE cadre who detonated a claymore mine in Dehiwela around 7.20 a.m. and arrest him at the Irattaperiyakulam checkpoint at around 7.30 p.m. The LTTEer was fleeing surreptitiously from the Medawachchiya checkpoint, when he was arrested,? Weerasekera said.

He pointed out that generally the Civil Security Forces man checkpoints together with the Security Forces and police. If any detection or arrest takes place at the checkpoints, the name of the CDF member is never disclosed. The courageous act of the woman CDF had been widely recognised by the Defence Ministry.

?The CDF are performing a courageous task to maintain security, law and order in the country. Their services and acts should be appreciated and rewarded,? he added. Deputy Director of the CDF SSP Nandana Wijeratne said if the LTTE bomber was not detected and arrested at Irattaperiyakulam, he might had entered Mullaitivu from Vavuniya.

The woman CDF who arrested the Dehiwela railway track bomber was promoted as a Woman Warden and rewarded with Rs.50,000 at the CDF Headquarters yesterday.

Meanwhile, two other women CDF members were promoted as Sub Warden and rewarded with Rs.10,000 each for seizing 100 GN sticks and arresting two LTTE suspects at the Puliyanakulam checkpoint on February 2.

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Courage, alertness her forte

Rafik Jalaldeen

COLOMBO: The courageous and vigilant woman Civil Defence Force member who arrested the Dehiwela railway bomber at the Irattaperiyakulam checkpoint was promoted to Warden and rewarded with Rs.50,000 by the Defence Ministry yesterday.

Dayawathy (name changed for security reasons), a grandmother and a resident of Vavuniya joined the Home Guard service several years ago.

Dayawathy described how she detected the LTTE suspect and arrested him. ?We all had been given a photograph and personal details of the suspect and asked to be alert.

On Wednesday around 7.00 p.m. three buses reached the Irattaperiyakulam checkpoint. I was checking passengers who arrived in a CTB bus, there were over 100 passengers. When I was checking around six passengers, I saw the suspect standing in the queue,? Dayawathy said.

Dayawathy asked the suspect to come forward to check his identification. ?When I asked for his National Identity Card, he gave his driving license and I told him that the licence does not prove identification. He told me that he?s an engineer and spoke in English. Then I spoke in Tamil with him. He was sweating and produced a fake National ID from his pocket,? she said.

Dayawathy asked Balasubramaniam to wait and called a police sergeant. ?I noted he was slowly sneaking out and walking out from the checkpoint. I rushed to the OIC of the checkpoint and informed him that the suspect was here.?

A police team with Dayawathy went to search LTTE cadre Balasubramaniam around 250 m towards Anuradhapura. ?I told the police team to turn towards the Vavuniya road. When they had gone around 500 m they spotted the suspect running. The OIC ordered all the vehicles to stop moving and arrested the suspect along with two mobile phones,? Dayawathy said.

Jatheesan Balasubramaniam placed a claymore mine at Wasala Mawatha between Dehiwela and Wellawatte targeting a Colombo bound office train from Panadura.

Eighteen people were injured in the explosion. The bag he was carrying fell when a three wheeler driver intercepted him. Police found his genuine ID card in the bag and it was flashed in all newspapers, TV stations in addition to being faxed to all police stations and checkpoints, which ultimately led to his swift arrest.