ATLEAST
TEN DIE WHEN TAMIL TIGERS EXPLODE A BOMB IN A PASSENGER COMPARTMENT
OF COLOMBO PANADURA TRAIN
By
Walter Jayawardhana
The death toll of civilians of the Colombo train bomb explosion rose
to ten the state owned Independent Television Network announced in its
latest news bulleting.
The Kalubowila Teaching Hospital spokesman said that 73 people injured
were initially admitted to the hospital and one of the victims was rushed
for specialized treatment to the National Hospital in Colombo while
others were being treated at Kalubowila.
“Among those who were killed was a pregnant mother and this was
a crowded train carrying office workers home,” Defense Ministry
sources said.
Defense Ministry sources said the explosion took place at 4.55 p.m.
near the Dehiwala Railway station in a Colombo-Panadura passenger train
carriage . The train started from maradana at 4.25 p.m. The Ministry
of Defense blamed the terrorist bomb on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE).
 
Initial investigations show the bomb was kept on a luggage carrier
rack in the passenger compartment by the suspected Tamil Tigers.
The explosion ripped through the compartment injuring and killing many
passengers in the usually overcrowded compartment and the injured were
immediately taken to the Kalubowila Teaching Hospital, closeby.
The train explosion was one that was successful among many bombs suspected
to have been planted by the LTTE during the last few days but were discovered
by civilians including a bus conductor in a series of events all over
the island before the bombs went off.
Police investigators said the parcel bomb suspected to have been planted
on a luggage carrying rack on the fourth compartment of the Maradana-Panadura
office train ripped through compartment and blowing the roof sky high
with a deafening noise. It happened when the train reached near the
Dehiwal Railway station. There were about 200 passengers traveling at
the time of the explosion. Many of them were office workers who were
going home, police sources said.
This is the second time the LTTE detonated a bombs in a crowded train
near Dehiwala. Tamil Tiger bombs killed more than seventy passengers
and wounded hundreds of others July 24 1996, when two bombs ripped through
two compartments in the same train..
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