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SECURITY FORCES IN SRI LANKA ARE LOOKING FOR A SUICIDE TRUCK LADEN WITH 1000 KILOGRAMS OF PLASTIC EXPLOSIVESBy Walter JayawardhanaA red alert has gone to the police and other security services in Sri
Lanka to look out for a suicide truck laden with more than 2200 pounds
of C-4 plastic explosives intended to be blown up by the terrorist group,
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). After the police detecting a truck packed with enough plastic explosives
belonging to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) claimed to
be capable of causing the deaths of thousands of people the red alert
has gone to all security forces in Sri Lanka to look for a second truck
of the similar nature , the country’s Prime Minister announced.
"The explosives in that truck was enough to blow up half of Colombo
and we are told that there is a second truck wit h the same quantity
of explosives," said Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka of
Sri Lanka referring to the first alleged LTTE truck caught and the second
truck the security forces are looking for to catch before the terrorists
would blow it up causing probably at least hundreds of deaths momentarily.
It is believed that the information about the second truck came by
interrogating the truck driver and cleaner who have been arrested by
the police after detecting more than one thousand kilograms of C-4 plastic
explosives (or 2200 pounds) neatly wired in 42 boxes together to make
the vehicle a suicide truck bomb. The explosives were concealed in a
specially built compartment in the truck loaded with cocoanuts, a common
fruit necessary to cook Sri Lanka’s rice and curry meals. The hidden bomb was detected by a suspicious Police Seargent named
D. H.M. Premathillaka , when the alleged LTTE truck driver offered a
sheaf of notes of few hundred Rupees cash as bribes with his drivers
license as an incentive to avoid a thorough check when the truck was
stopped for a routine inspection at a road block police sentry post
at Kotavehara Palugas junction in Nikeweratiya in the country’s
North Western Province. Premathilaka said his suspicion increased when he started tapping various
places of the truck with an iron rod and some places gave a strange
noise that encouraged him to loosen few bolts of the body and discovered
some thick wires. A young and curious man who was watching him told
the police officer his brother who worked for the Army Bomb Disposal
Unit was at home and he could call him to examine. The young man’s
brother confirmed there was a bomb fixed inside the truck and the police
cleared the area blocking vehicles to pass through the point. It was
later revealed the young man was an army lance corporal who was on leave
but did not forget his duty by the country and his brother an army retiree
who was a bomb disposal expert when he was working. The Bomb Disposal
Unit of the Special Task Force of the Police later removed the boxes
of explosives wired together in a concealed compartment that would have
made the whole truck into a suicide truck bomb. A weekend newspaper in Colombo said, “Investigations have revealed
that the lorry may have been intended for a suicide attack on a passing
out parade which took place the next day at the Vijayabha army training
school in Puttalam ( a nearby town in the same province). Around 338
soldiers passed out with around 6,000 people in attendance, many of
them family members or friends of the recruits. At least 50-60 of these
men are to be selected to join the special forces.” The overjoyed police authorities in Colombo immediately gave Seargent
Prematillaka , the man who detected the bomb a promotion as a Sub Inspector
of Police, a rank above his present position and informed others who
assisted him that they would be rewarded too. Police said Prematillaka
was sent there on that day on relief duty since the man on roaster of
duties at the sentry post went on sick leave. |
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