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Chronology Of Ltte Terror - Part 58
From the Daily News Archives
When the euphoria of victory dies down, and
together with it the media hype ceases, when the guns do not rattle and
boom anymore and the sky, the land and the sea become calm and serene,
when tranquillity reigns through it is natural to live in the present
moment and forget the past. But one cannot live in the present without a
past. Nor can one envision the future discarding the experience of the
preceding events.
Hence the Daily News is serialising the
Chronicle of LTTE Terror taken from our own archives which would remind
our readers how it all began. An awareness of the chronology of terror
would help us prevent the recurrence of such terror and frustrate any
attempts by misguided elements to repeat history to suit their evil
designs. It was not simple terror. Nor was terror sporadic. It was all
pre-planned, pre-determined, well-calculated terror. The victims were
innocent people. Though it is too many innumerate we would like to
recall the major episodes in the Chronology of Terror.
[Saturday October 21, 1995]
Tiger hitmen go for oil facility
Effects not as bad as first feared:
Sarath Malalasekera
A terrorist strike at the Ceylon Petroleum Corporations’s (CPC)
Kolonnawa tank farm and the Orugodawatte crude oil depot in the early
hours of Friday morning triggered one of the biggest ever blazes seen in
Colombo with subsequent shooting, leaving at lest 21 persons dead.
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Kolonnawa
tank farm after the attack |
Government imposed a curfew in the aftermath of the explosion first
till 12 noon on Friday and later extended till 4 a.m. today. The effect
of the attack, however, was established to be not as bad as originally
feared.
Four of the Kolonnawa facility’s 47 storage tanks were set ablaze in
the attack in which police estimated about 20 heavily armed Tiger cadres
had participated. Three tanks were set on fire at the crude oil
facility, CPC sources said.
Among the dead were Air Force, Army and police personnel who died in
the shooting which followed the explosion and the fires. Crime Detective
bureau Sources said that investigations suggested that the terrorists
had planted explosives in the oil facilities and then detonated them
electronically.
A man who police believe led the attackers was shot dead by as police
constable near the Baseline Road railway crossing. Police also found two
legs of a man with the trunk missing close to the main gate of the
Kolonnawa installation. His feet were clad in shoes identical to those
worn by the man killed at the level crossing.
Senior SP Lionel Gunatillake, head of the CDB, said that they had
arrested four of the attackers. accomplices who were now being held
under the Emergency pending completion of investigations. Among them was
the driver of a lorry loaded with the tools of terror.
A 60 mm rocket launcher, wire cutters,nylon rope and military
uniforms were among the items hidden among cartons of soap, milk powder
and food items, the driver claimed to be transporting to Kilinochchi. He
said a businessman in Rajagiriya, named as Jegan, had hired him and
could not account for the items hidden in his vehicle.
Investigators said that CPC security guards had seen four men dressed
in dark shirts and trousers trying to enter the Kolonnawa facility and
shouted horu, horu (“thief, thief”). The intruders had opened fire which
had been returned and the military informed. Within minutes of this
encounter, an explosion was heard inside the taken farm followed by the
blaze.
The lorry and other equipment was detected about half an hour after
the fire had begun.
The man who was shot dead at Baseline Road was armed with a T-56
rifle and carried Rs. 3,500 cash. He also had a list of 19 code names
that have led the authorities to believe that he had that any
accomplices.
DIG (Colombo) H, M. G. B. Kotakadeniya said that investigations
revealed that the hit team had been sent to Colombo by the LTTE’s
Kilinochchi leader Suruban. Their plans had been finalised in the
Rajagiriya businessman’s home.
Detectives believe that four of the attackers had travelled to
Kolonnawa by lorry and 8 by van. How the rest of the team reached their
target had not been established.
Seven SLAF personnel riding a Land Rover were killed in the vicinity
of the attack after the blaze had begun. They had arrived there in
response to the alarm. Shooting in the vicinity continued long after the
fire and two policemen and several soldiers were killed in this
fighting.
Daily News staffer Anton Gunasekera who drove towards the
installation after seeing the blaze from across the Kelani bridge at 2
a.m. was stopped on a Factory by two uniformed men armed with T-56.
“They emerged from behind a parked passenger bus. One held the nozzle
of his weapon against the head of my friend at the wheel of our car
while the other pointed his gun at me. “Where are you going this way?”,
he demanded in Sinhalese.
“I was quick enough to say that we were returning home after
admitting my grandchild who was seriously ill to the children’s
hospital.
“The man on the driver’s side somewhat agitatedly asked whether we
saw any policemen at the junction. We said we had not noticed any and
were allowed to proceed. We watched the men get back to their hiding
place behind the bus on our driving mirror.
“We drove to the Borella police and reported the incident to OIC
Gamini Wijesuriya who sent off a jeep load of eight armed policemen and
alerted army emergency”, Gunasekera said. The two policemen killed in
the shootout following yesterday’s Kolonnawa fire were Chief Inspector
Dissanayake of the STF and reserve Inspector Dharmasena of the Mirihana
police.
The two injured policemen are SPs Thangavelu of the CID and SP
Angunawela.
Lake House loses three journalists in attack on aircraft
Wijitha Nakkawita
On April 29, 1995 three journalists of Lake House were aboard an Air
Force aircraft on its way to Palaly to report the story of the Avro Jet
Aircraft that was exploded by the terrorists two days earlier. Among the
three was our colleague Karunaratne Saputantri, a Deputy Editor of the
sister newspaper Silumina and a novelist who had authored several
Sinhala Novels. Sapu as we fondly addressed him had a perpetual smile on
his face and was a person who would not hurt a fly. His manners and
mannerisms were humanitarian and he was a soft spoken man whose writing
skills were far above the average.
The second was Kirama Piyasoma also of the same newspaper a self made
crime reporter who had worked very hard to become one of the best at
Lake House and his close colleagues had seen him taking all the notes on
the Avro aircraft disaster the evening before the ill-fated flight to
Jaffna. The third, Edwin Weerasinghe was a photo journalist with much
experience and was always there when the newspaper demanded a good
photographic coverage whether it was to be a series of pictures or
simply one photograph.
When the SLAF carrying over 50 members of the armed forces and our
three journalists was crossing the northern coastal area LTTE terrorists
opened anti-aircraft fire bringing it down. All aboard the aircraft died
in the crash.
 The LTTE now on the run in the north however crept into strategic
hideouts in jungle pockets and were firing mortars at the armed forces
positions and on September 9, 1995 a LTTE hand grenade was lobbed into a
classroom at Vipulananda Maha Vidyalaya, Eravur in the Eastern Province
and injured six students seriously.
During the small hours of October 20, a group of LTTE cadres who had
infiltrated Colombo city attacked the Orugodawatte crude oil tank farm
firing motars and setting four of the forty seven oil tanks ablaze with
21 people.
When police opened fire on the attackers one of them died but the
others who had come for the attack escaped.
The damage done to the oil storage tanks was a serious threat to the
national economy as the Orugaodawatte oil tank farm was one of the most
important facilities that supplied crude oil to the oil refinery at
Sapugaskanda.
Though the terrorists had come with the intention of attacking with
mortar fire the entire 47 oil tanks at Orugodawatte the counter attack
on the terrorist group by the army and police saved the larger number of
tanks and did not interrupt the fuel storage and distribution.
The fuel supplies remained normal but a more devastating result could
have been witnessed if the security forces and the police did not arrive
and defended the oil tanks farm.
[Monday November 13, 1995]
Two suspects arrested in abortive attack on army headquarters
A. S. Fernando and Edward Arambawela
Police sleuths investigating Saturday’s abortive attack on the army
headquarters have already arrested two suspects, official sources said
yesterday.
The search for more possible accomplices continued as the two
suspects were being interrogated.
Fifteen people including a Police sergeant and a soldier were killed
when two Tiger suicide bombers blew themselves when their attempt to
enter the army headquarters was foiled.
The first suicide bomber had tried to enter the army headquarters
premises about 10 am on Saturday. The military policeman at the entrance
checkpoint had drawn his pistol on the defiant intruder when the latter
blasted himself injuring several soldiers.
The second suicide bomber who was fleeing the blast scene had blown
herself opposite the Slave Island railway station where a large crowd
had gathered by then. At least 14 people were killed and about 50 others
injured in this blast.
The blasts were believed to have been triggered by explosives
strapped to the bodies of the two suicide bombers.
A senior Police official said that the attackers were not targeting
anyone in particular. “They just wanted to show the world their
capability to strike,” he said.
The death toll from the blasts would have been minimal if the people
did not rush where they were not wanted, he pointed out.
Of the 62 bomb blast victims admitted to the Accident Service in
Colombo General Hospital on Saturday, 32 had been discharged by
yesterday morning, hospital director Dr. Terrence de Silva said.
“The medical staff had been working late into the night on Friday,
attending on army casualties from the North. Tired as they were, the
entire staff, however, readily rose to the occasion when the bomb blast
victims were brought,” he said.
The director placed the special medical team of the Disaster
Preparedness Plan (DPP) on alert when he heard the first blast soon
after 10 am. The team had to attend on only two victims from the first
blast. They thought they could call it a day when they heard the second
blast about 10.30 am which brought over 60 victims, Dr. de Silva
recalled.
Nine victims of the second blast were found dead on admission.
Another victim succumbed to his injuries on Saturday night.
Hospital Director Dr. de Silva said that he had been compelled to
restrict visitors to patients for security reasons and appealed to
friends and relatives for their co-operation.
Eleven bodies of the 17 killed in the blasts have already been
identified by relatives.
The dead victimes identified by relatives are: PS Arunashantha of
Slave Island Police, Surasena of Army Headquarters, Sanjiva Soysa of
Slave Island, Bandula Rajapakse, a hotel employee, Mohamed Nawshaad,
Ilmi Jayatunga Mohamed Rizvi, Veleyuthan Prabakaran, Mohamed Seyed,
Serin Mohamed and Paki Mohamed Rushan Ali.
Investigations are being conduced under the direction of senior DIG
H. M. G. B. Kotakadeniya and CDB director, SSP Lionel Gunatillake.
[Friday October 27, 1995]
Tigers kill 23 civilians
LTTE terrorists killed 23 civilians in Heratthalmillewa, 12 km from
Kebithigollawa in the North Central Province early yesterday morning,
military spokesman Sarath Munasinghe said.
This attack is the fifth of its kind since Saturday.
Military officials in Colombo said the Tigers were “thoroughly
desperate” after suffering heavy losses in the current military
offensive and resorted to diabolical killings to distract the attention
of security forces and provoke a communal backlash.
In other incidents, two soldiers were killed in a landmine explosion
in Mailambaweli, Batticaloa on Wednesday.
Three civilians have been killed on Wednesday when policemen at a
guard post in Mannar opened fire on a bus mistaking it for a bus
carrying LTTE cadres, shortly after a landmine explosion in the vicinity
injured three policemen.
Another 17 civilians were injured and airlifted to Anuradhapura
hospital.
A police team led by senior DIG A. S. Seneviratne have left for
Mannar to investigate the shooting’.
The funerals of the three civilians will be done at state expense.
Tuesday October 24, 1995:
Tigers kill 19 villagers
LTTE terrorists killed 19 villagers including six children and five
women in Attimalai in the Moneragala District early morning yesterday,
defence sources in Colombo said.
Several other persons were wounded in the attack by the terrorists
who also torched a number of shops and homes.
The latest massacre follows similar raids by the LTTE on Sinhalese
villages in the North Central Province and Eastern Province on Saturday.
Tuesday March 17, 1994:
Tigers kill five fishermen, sink their boats
COLOMBO, Wednesday (Lankapuvath) - LTTE terrorist in boats brutally
gunned down five fisheries and sank their boats, on Tuesday night, near
Kudurumalai Points, off the Puttalam - Mannar border.
A military spokesman, Brigadier Gemunu Kulatunga, said the attack had
taken place off the fishing village of Baththalangunda.
He said five other fishermen were wounded. Three fishing boats were
sunk by the terrorists.
Tomorrow - Bombs rip Central Bank
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