Lankan blast leaves three injured

COLOMBO, FEBRUARY 3: A powerful bomb ripped apart a bus in Sri Lankan capital Colombo on Wednesday injuring three persons despite unpreced...

COLOMBO, FEBRUARY 3: A powerful bomb ripped apart a bus in Sri Lankan capital Colombo on Wednesday injuring three persons despite unprecedented security to prevent any untoward incident ahead of Friday’s Independence Day celebrations.

The police said the bomb, placed under a seat, went off when all the passengers had disembarked and the bus was on its way to a petrol station. The bus driver, conductor and cleaner were injured in the blast which happened while the bus was passing through Orugudawatte near Dimathaguda in north-central Colombo.

No one has so far claimed responsibility of the blast although police suspect that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which has been fighting a 13-year-old war for a separate Tamil homeland in the northeast, is involved. However, the police were not clear about the target of the blast.

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"We do not know the actual target, but the consequences would have been devastating had it exploded at the patrol station," one police official said. The explosion also baffled police as all vehicles from Tamil dominated Batticaloa are heavily checked in different check-points.

A similar blast took place in a bus near Kurnegala few days ago in which several people were injured.

Hundreds of Army and police personnel swarmed the lanes and bylanes leading to Parliament, located on the city’s outskirts, where the low key celebrations were planned for 52nd Independence Day.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga may not attend Friday Independence Day celebrations as she has been told to take a few days rest, official media reported on Thursday.

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A brief front page news item in the Daily News said that the President was indisposed and would be resting for a few days. There was no comment from the President’s office.

The news was seen in political circles as an indication that Kumaratunga, who lost vision in her right eye following a suicide bomb attack at an election rally on December 18, would skip the celebrations. Kumaratunga has not appeared in public since then. Twenty-six people were killed in last month’s blast.