Short Takes

Two Lankans held for heroin smuggling

Indian Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officials arrested two Sri Lankan Tamils, including a school teacher, and seized from them 1.5 kg of heroin concealed inside rice cookers and electric ovens. The seized drug is estimated to be worth Rs 1.5 crore in the international market.

Acting on a tip-off, the NCB officials on Friday night intercepted Shanmuganathan, a Sri Lankan, at Chennai Airport just as he was to board a flight to Sri Lanka. They inspected his hand baggage and found 750 gm of heroin worth Rs 75 lakhs concealed inside an electric oven and rice cooker.

The NCB officials took him into custody before handing him over to the airport police.

The police team learnt that he had been sent to the city by another agent, who is active in a smuggling racket in the city.

“We recovered a mobile SIM card from him and retrieved the mobile call list. The police mounted a close surveillance at a few suspects, whom Shanmuganathan had been talking to before he entered the airport,” a senior NCB officer said. To page 13

Saudi’s body to Jeddah after post mortem - Envoy

Mohammed Rasooldeen in Riyadh

The body of a Saudi man who died in Colombo will be sent to Jeddah after the post mortem, Saudi Ambassador in Colombo Abdul Rahman Al Jammaz said.

Thameer Saeed Al-Zahrani, 28, died in Sri Lanka on Friday while being rushed to hospital from the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA).

Al-Zahrani died on his way to Negombo Base Hospital after suffering severe chest pains. Al-Zahrani had been on board a Saudia plane SV 819 bound to Jeddah from Jakarta, which had made an emergency landing in Sri Lanka at 8.33 p.m. after he complained he was experiencing chest pains.

According to a Saudia official in Colombo, authorities at the airport mobilised a special state-of-the-art ambulance to ferry the man to hospital, while providing him with medical care.

An official from the Saudi Embassy in Colombo said Al-Zahrani’s body is at the Negombo Base Hospital. To page 13

Arms cache in Grandpass

Chaminda Perera

Grandpass police yesterday recovered eight Kg of C4 explosives, detonators and a stock of wires and accessories at a temporary housing unit in the Madampitiya Housing Scheme in Grandpass yesterday.

According to Police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekera, a special police team from the Grandpass police made this detection following a tip off.

Meanwhile, 12 persons were injured in a bus - lorry collision at Pothupitiya, Wadduwa on the Galle Road yesterday. According to SSP Gunasekera a bus heading to Colombo from Matara collided head on with a lorry causing extensive damage to the vehicles.

The injured which includes the drivers of the two vehicles who are critical, have been admitted to the Panadura Base hospital. Wadduwa Police are investigating.

Prof. Wiswa Warnapala says...

Udul Premaratne, Convener of the Inter University Students Federation quoted in an interview on page 4 of the Sunday Observer of August 24 is no longer a student of the Dental Faculty of the University of Peradeniya, Prof. Wiswa Warnapala, Minister of Higher Education said yesterday.

The Minister said Premaratne’s studentship had been cancelled with effect from July 29, 2008 for failure to complete the 2nd BDS Examination in four attempts.

According to the Dean of the Faculty of Dental Sciences, Udul Premaratne had neither sat for nor submitted a valid reason or a Medical Certificate for his absence for examinations held in December 2007 and May 2008.

He had not attended the academic Programmes of the Faculty of Dental Sciences for over a period of one year without any notification.