Chronology Of Ltte Terror- Part 67

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.

Bomb explodes

in Vavuniya P.O.

Eight people killed and 73 injured:

Wijitha Nakkawita

LTTE terrorists rarely chose targets on civilians in the Wanni region unless they were to explode a bus bomb to kill civilians who may be travelling through the region or some perchance vehicle on one of the Vanni Roads. Yet there were civilians who were employed in government departments, the government hospital or teachers who were Sinhalese or Muslims in the town of Vavuniya a heavily secured outpost in the Wanni where there was a strong military and police presence.

After the abortive attempt to assassinate President Chandrika Kumaratunga and the assassination of Minister C. V. Gooneratne at Dehiwala along with another 42 civilians including the wife of the minister, terrorists had become almost experts in the art of killing civilians at even highly secured places.

On January 27 the Vavunia Post Office was crowded with over two hundred people who had come to send postal orders after the public servants pay day to send some remittances to their families.

The LTTE was aware that a considerable number of army and police personnel would also be coming to the post office for the same purpose.

Therefore they had placed a time bomb at the post office on that day.

When the post office was crowded the bomb exploded killing eight people and injuring 73 others. Among the injured were several in a critical condition.

The worst bomb blast recorded in Vavuniya on this day injured 57 civilians including 45 women and 12 men. Eight army and 8 police personnel.

It had been said by a large number of security analysts who specialized in counter terrorist activities and even by civilian analysts that the violence of the terrorists was always aimed at achieving two objectives.

One was to instill fear into the minds of the public and the other to deter the activities of the police and armed forces in containing or defeating terrorists. The objective of the Vavuniya bomb was exactly to achieve both ends as the LTTE had declared the Wanni as one of the important regions of their so-called homeland of the Tamil people and were hell bent on ethnic cleansing of the area.

As we had discussed earlier the LTTE terrorists also had a large number of non-governmental bodies and foreign sympathizers, especially in western countries that were assisting terrorists ostensibly performing social or humanitarian tasks pretending to be philanthropists. Vavuniya was noted for this type of organizations that had prepared the background to make the region inhabited by a large number of people of Indian origin from the plantations in the central province.

One notorious INGO had managed to get thousands of such people settled in the district so that the terrorists would find it easy to move about and carry out their bloody task with ease.

When the bomb at the post office exploded it was an attempt to kill a large number of army and police personnel and also civilians of the south who were employed by the government to serve the people of Vavunia.

The LTTE was therefore trying to put fear into such people so that others would not accept jobs in the district.

Sunday March 11, 2000:

22, including three gunmen killed and 64 wounded in terrorist attack at Rajagiriya

Sarath Malalasekera, Ranil Wijayapala Chandra Edirisuriya

Twenty two including three gunmen were killed and 64 wounded last evening when a group of bombs and opened fire at the busy Ayurveda roundabout, Rajagiriya, police said.

Hospital sources said that among the dead were six policemen and six women. A number of the injured were reported to be in a serious condition and were receiving emergency treatment, Emergency Unit Director Dr. Hector Weerasinghe said.

Eight vehicles have been badly damaged and one office van had been completely destroyed killing the women occupants.

Police told the Daily News late last night that the terrorist attack followed when two policemen on duty near the Ayurveda roundabout observing suspicious movements in a bush by the roadside, walked up to investigate and discovered two armed terrorists connecting the wires to a claymore mine which they had already placed on a tree nearby. On being discovered, the two terrorist gunmen had opened fire at point blank range, killing both policemen instantly. The other terrorists then started firing Rocket Propelled Grenades, machine guns and exploding bombs and hand grenades in all directions.

Meanwhile, the Special Task Force commandos from the nearby unit and policemen who were on duty in the vicinity counter-attacked, causing the terrorists to scatter. While many of them ran along the Kelani Valley railway line towards Wanathamulla, others were reported to have run for cover in a nearby school. Several Tigers were reported to have entered the Surpentine Road flats at Wanathamulla.

With the onset of dusk, the entire area was sealed off by the Security forces with helicopters assisting in the search.

Meanwhile, the Security Forces defused the claymore mine fixed to the tree. Police said they believe that terrorists had planned to attack a VIP returning from Parliament, but due to the discovery of the two terrorists laying the claymore mine, the attack on the VIP was aborted. A.N. Silva, a resident of Malabe said the vehicle he drove was stopped due to the sound of the blast at the junction and he heard firing going on. “I saw an armed group firing and coming out of the nearby bush. Then, leaving the vehicle there I rushed to a nearby bus that was also stopped due to the blast. There, I saw several armed men running towards the school. I narrowly escaped though my vehicle was badly damaged due to firing,” he remarked.

An STF officer of the Ministerial Security Division who declined to be identified said they were coming from the Rajagiriya Camp towards Colombo checking the security along the Parliament road.

“We saw four or five armed men coming towards Castle hospital after the sound of the blast and they shot at all Police personnel in uniform. We escaped as we were in civvies,” he added.

A Police constable who was on duty at the junction said soon after the blast he came to the road to check the situation. Then, I heard firing and I took cover behind a nearby vehicle to identify the gunmen. I saw a group of armed men rushing towards Castle hospital firing at the police personnel who were in uniform. Mallika Liyanage, residing opposite the Castle Hospital said she saw five to six armed men firing and coming towards the hospital.

She said a pregnant mother and her children who were at the children’s park near the junction were also admitted to the hospital as they were also injured in the firing.

STF DIGs Lionel Karunasena and Nimal Goonetilleke, Colombo DIG Jagath Jayawardane are directing the investigations. Security Forces who searched the area have recovered two RPGs and one suicide jacket. Geethika (19) a pregnant woman said that she was at the children’s park at Castle Street, Borella with her younger sister. Both have been injured. Geethika said that she heard a loud explosion as if from underground and her foot was hit by something.

Thursday January 6, 2000:

Thirteen killed in LTTE suicide bomb explosion

Sarath Malalasekera and Ranil Wijayapala

Nine police personnel and four civilians were killed when a suspected LTTE woman suicide bomber exploded herself yesterday morning in front of the Prime Minister’s office at Flower Road, Colombo. The explosion also injured 24 persons.

The woman dressed in a black pair of jeans and shirt had been loitering in the area from around 7.30 a.m. and had walked past the Prime Minister’s office several times. Acting on suspicion security personnel had asked her to produce her national identity card. The two women security personnel searched her as they suspected that the identity card was not genuine.

She then resisted the body-search and detonated the explosives strapped around her body. Investigators believe that the suicide bomber was targeting senior Government politicians who were expected to drive pass Flower Road on their way to an important meeting.

Security officials told the Daily News that the suspect had told them that she had come to a foreign employment agency nearby.

“However, the photo in the identity produced by the woman showed no resemblance to herself. She started crying when the security officers questioned her further and tried to evade the body search by Woman Police Constable Wijeratne,” they said.

They added that the suspect had refused to raise her hands when WPC Wijeratne had asked her to do so. Among the dead police personnel were Women Constables Wijeratne and Yamuna, Constables Chaminda Bandara, Sunil and Nissanka attached to the Prime Minister’s Security Division.

Meanwhile, hospital sources said that 24 persons injured in the blast were admitted to the Colombo National Hospital. Of the 24, six persons had sustained serious injuries.

Director National Hospital Colombo Dr. Hector Weerasinghe said that the injured are under treatment. Senior DIG Gamini Randeniya, Crimes DIG H.M.G.B. Kotakadeniya and Colombo DIG Jagath Jayawardene are conducting further investigations. Government Analyst Ananda Mendis and his team also visited the scene.

Friday January 28, 2000:

Eight dead, 73 injured in Vavuniya bomb blast

Jayantha Sri Nissanka and Vavuniya group corr.

Eight persons were killed and 73 were injured when a bomb elieved to have been planted by LTTE exploded at the Vavuniya Post Office at 10.15 am yesterday.

Military spokesman Brigadier Palitha Fernando said three civilians and three Army personnel were among the dead have not been identified yet. He said the injured include 57 civilians (45 women and 12 men), eight Army personnel and eight police personnel. The explosive device was a claymore mine type bomb placed underneath the outgoing foreign letter box, the Spokesman said.

At the time of the explosion there were about 100 people in the post office including many Security Forces personnel who had come there to remit money to their families by Money Order. Fifty eight of the injured have been evacuated to the Anuradhapura hospital, while the others are warded at the Vavuniya hospital.

Vavuniya Police directed by SSP Ranjit Samarakoon are conducting investigations. Meanwhile, postal authorities said they are planning to move the post office to a makeshift building and resume normal operations as soon as possible. Security has been further strengthened in and around Vavuniya following the incident.

Friday May 19, 2000:

16 civilians killed in Vesak day LTTE bomb attack

Twenty two persons - sixteen innocent civilians, mostly Tamils and six members of the Armed Forces and the Police were killed when a time bomb placed by the LTTE near a Vesak pandal outside the Mangalaramaya Temple in Batticaloa exploded on Wednesday evening, a media release from the Special Media Information Centre said yesterday.

The blast in Batticaloa, where the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities live in harmony, seems to be an attempt by the LTTE to trigger an ethnic backlash and bolster their propaganda machine, the SMIC stated.

The day marked the first time that the Vesak Poya Day was declared as an international religious day by the United Nations and the blast set off near a Buddhist temple confirms the ruthlessness of the LTTE, the release said.

The LTTE’s attacks on innocent civilians and places of worship began several years ago. The attack on civilians at Anuradhapura in 1985, the killing of Buddhist priests at Arantalawa, the assassination of the Dimbulagala Chief Priest and the bomb attack on the Sri Dalada Maligawa in 1998 are a few examples of LTTE brutality. The aim of the LTTE seems to be to stall the war effort in the North by causing ethnic disharmony through the bomb blast on Vesak day held sacred by Buddhists all over the world, the SMIC stated.

There is no doubt that Buddhists would have been deeply shocked by this brutal attack.

It is for this reason that the Government decided to withhold this news until steps were taken to safeguard innocent civilians and prevent an ethnic backlash.

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has directed that Civil Defence Committees set up to protect innocent Tamil civilians be kept at full alert, the release said.

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Tomorrow - Suicide attack at Eye Hospital

Saturday - President Kumaratunga injured