Chronology Of Ltte Terror - Part 73

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.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Four killed, 35 injured in LTTE claymore blast

Rafik Jalaldeen

Four civilians were killed and 35 others injured when a Colombo bound bus from Mannar was caught in a LTTE claymore mine on Monday night. The incident took place near Chettikulam, Police Media Spokesman Senior DIG Jayantha Wickramaratne said. “A private bus plying from Mannar to Colombo was hit by a LTTE claymore mine killing four passengers and injuring 35 others.

“The incident took place in Chettikulam, on Colombo-Mannar A-14 road on Monday at around 11.30 p.m. The bus had left Mannar carrying 39 passengers at around 9.30 p.m. Just as it was passing the Manik Farm Junction when LTTE triggered off the claymore mine,” DIG Wickramaratne told the Daily News.

Four passengers who were critically injured have been admitted to Chettikulam and Medawachchi hospitals, he added.

Police and Army conducted a joint search operation.

LTTE maintains its level of violence

Wijitha Nakkawita

There was an offer from the Government to hold talks with the LTTE terrorists during the second half of 2006 and a response to contacts made by the authorities was awaited while the terrorist group remained uncommunicative. Earlier in the year the killings of civilians had gone on unabated yet optimists believed that the terrorists could be brought to the negotiation table.

Several areas of the North and East during this time was still open for prowling terrorist bands who faced defeat at the hands of the army in many strategic places, yet a few terrorists crossing jungles and wooded areas were going on with their bloody raids on unarmed civilians especially in locations where the presence of the army was not in the immediate vicinity.

It was on September 19 that a group of young men had gone to repair a sluice gate of an irrigation reservoir at Iruthalkulam near Pottuvil when a group of armed terrorists dressed in T shirts and shorts set upon the group of young men and hacked 10 of them to death.

One among the group of young men survived and was able to say that the group who hacked to death his colleagues were conversing in Tamil and he believed they were LTTE terrorists.

All in the group were Muslim youth between the ages of 15 to 26 and a certain political party made a controversial statement on the issue and seemed to say that the killings were not done by the terrorists.

The leader of that political party also said that the number of security personnel given to him had been reduced after he made that statement that seemed to say that a certain security force was responsible for the murder of the the 10 unarmed youth.

The political background of the time had to be recalled to judge whether the politician who had gone to the Vanni to meet the terrorist boss Velupillai Prabhakaran to negotiate some agreement during the time that Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister signed a ceasefire agreement with the LTTE was trying to blame the government for the incident.

But there was no rationale behind such statements as the Armed Forces or the police had not gone on record hacking to death or otherwise killing unarmed civilians of any ethnic group during this period or earlier after the terrorist groups started killing unarmed civilians with various attacks with bombs, guns or even swords and knives.

The attack also brought public protest demonstrations in the Pottuvil region but there was clear evidence from villagers in the locality as the people of Panama close to Pottuvil had seen small groups of armed terrorists roaming in the jungles some days before the attack on the group of young men took place.

It was becoming amply clear that the LTTE terrorists’ violence against civilians had not abated nor did it appear that they would change their tactics of killing unarmed civilians at various remote locations as the terrorist group did not have any other agenda.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Body of fisherman killed by LTTE found

Rasika Somaratne

The body of the fisherman who went missing following the LTTE attack on a group of fishermen in the Silavathurai Sea area last Friday had been found near the seas off Baththalangunduwa yesterday morning, the Media Centre for National Security said.

The LTTE threatened a group of fishermen and forcibly took away 13 boats fitted with high powered outboard motors last Friday. One person had gone missing as the rest reached ashore with the help of other fishermen in the area. Meanwhile, LTTE terror tactics depriving the livelihood of the fishermen in the area continued as another fisherman complained to the Mannar Police yesterday saying that LTTE terrorists had threatened him and forcibly taken his boat and engine.

The Mannar Police is conducting investigations.

April 3, 2007

Tiger bus bomb kills 16, six aid workers gunned down

Ranil Wijayapala

The LTTE, displayed their total desperation in the face of their continuous defeats in the Eastern theatre by exploding a bomb inside a civilian bus killing 16 people in Kondawattuwan in Ampara and gunning down another six Sinhalese aid workers in Mailambaveli in Batticaloa.

Sixteen people including two children were killed and 25 civilians were injured as a bomb exploded inside a Sri Lanka Transport Board bus plying from Ampara to Badulla via Bibile when it was stopped at a security checkpoint near the Kondawattuwan tank.

Military Spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said the bomb exploded when passengers were getting down from the bus for checking at the security checkpoint.

“It is not yet clear how the bomb has been exploded. But we suspect it was a parcel bomb kept inside the bus, Brigadier Samarasinghe said.

The incident took place 12.10 p.m. the Brigadier added.

Ten females, two children and three males were among those who were killed in the bus bomb. One soldier and a Policeman were also among the killed.

Eighteen people have been admitted to the Ampara General Hospital after the incident and the critically injured were being airlifted to the Colombo National hospital.

The bus was completely wrecked in the blast and troops at the nearby Kondawattuwan camp had rushed to rescue the people trapped in the bus.

The LTTE killed six innocent Sinhalese aid workers who attended construction work at the “Village of Hope”, a housing scheme built for orphaned children in Eravur, Mailambaveli around 8.15 p.m. on Sunday. Two others who suffered serious gunshot injuries were admitted to the Eravur hospital.

According to Police, the Sinhalese civilian workers were helping the Tamil community in Mailambaveli, a village close to the uncleared areas in Batticaloa, to provide better living conditions for children.

“This inhuman act of the Tiger terrorists exhibits nothing but cowardly brutal terror unleashed on innocent civilians whenever they face continuous defeats at the hands of the Security Forces, Brigadier Samarasinghe added.

“This shows that the LTTE will not hesitate in taking revenge even from innocent civilians irrespective of their ethnicity, caste or religion,” he added.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

LTTE claymore attack kills 7 civilians

Targets STF truck in a crowded city:

Manjula Fernando

The LTTE exploded a claymore mine at Ratmalana last evening killing seven civilians and wounding 37 others including six STF personnel.

The bomb went off around 5.40 p.m. as an STF truck went past Belekkade Junction, Ratmalana where the claymore was planted, on a roof of a closed down shop.

The truck veered off the road with the impact of the blast.

The military accused the LTTE of targeting civilians in the guise of military targets, carefully choosing soft spots where civilian presence is abundant.

An STF truck travelling from the Katukurunda training base to Gonahena Camp at Kadawatha, carrying nine STF personnel including a police Sub Inspector, was damaged in the mine attack, military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said adding that the LTTE was behind the ruthless attack.

“They did not even consider that the place was brimming with civilians at the time,” condemning the attack the Brigadier said.

The injured were rushed to the Kalubowila and Panadura Hospitals and the National Hospital, Colombo. Around 10 p.m. yesterday, 31 (including five STF men) were receiving treatment at Kalubowila, 2 at Panadura and another 2 (one STF) were at the National Hospital.

“None of them are in critical condition,” a spokesman for the Media Centre for National Security said. Five dead bodies, two men and three women are lying at Kalubowila hospital while the body of a another male is at Panadura and another at the National Hospital.

The bomb is suspected to have been fixed to the roof of a closed down shop located on the sea side of the Galle Road, near the Belekkade Junction. Several shops close by, including a VCD centre were damaged in the explosion suspected to have been activated by a remote controlled device.

The traffic flow from Ratmalana direction to Colombo was temporarily blocked soon after the incident.

The Police, STF, Army and the Air Force carried out a joint search operation in the area soon afterwards.

The hospitals released the names of the victims who died yesterday’s blast. D.S. Balachandra, Dananjaya Rajakaruna (Panadura Hospital) and Irangani Fernando of Ratmalana, Roshan Bandara of Mt. Lavinia, Shantha Kumara of Boralesgamuwa, H.S. Ramani of Elpitiya, Samantha Gunaratne and Samantha Gunarathne of Ratmalana are among them.

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Tomorrow - 17 killed, 37 injured in Nugegoda blast

Yesterday - Nearly 100 sailors killed in LTTE suicide attack