Terrorism-related Incidents in Colombo

2008

No.	Date	Description
1	January 1	The UNP Member of Parliament, T. Maheshwaran, was shot at and injured by suspected ‘pistol gang’ cadres of the LTTE while he was offering prayers inside Sivam Kovil (Temple of Lord Shiva) at Kotahena in the capital Colombo. The Parliamentarian, however, succumbed to his injuries. One of the nine more civilians wounded in the incident also died of his injuries. Meanwhile the Kotahena police claimed that the suspect, a resident of Gurunagar in Jaffna, was shot at and injured in retaliatory fire by Maheswaran's security personnel and is under police custody.
2	January 2	Four persons were killed and over 20 injured in a powerful bomb blast in Colombo. The Defence Ministry said the blast which occurred at about 9:30am opposite the Nippon Hotel, targeted an army bus carrying soldiers.
3	January 4	The death toll in the LTTE claymore attack at Slave Island in Colombo on January 2 has risen to five with the death of the Second Lieutenant D.M.S.K. Dissanayake of Sri Lanka National Guard who was among the critically injured persons.
4.	January 8	Suspected LTTE militants killed the non-Cabinet Minister for Nation Building, D.M. Dissanayake, in a claymore mine blast near Rukmani Devi junction at Ja-ela while he was proceeding towards Colombo to attend the Parliament session. A personal bodyguard of the Minister, identified as K.P. Rathnayaka, also succumbed to his injuries in the hospital. 13 people, including seven civilians, were injured in the incident.
5.	January 8	The SLAF chief, Air Marshal Roshan Goonetilleke, narrowly escaped being caught in a bomb blast in Colombo. The SLAF commander had passed by the site of the blast in the Fort area of central Colombo, just three minutes before a parcel bomb placed in a roadside public telephone booth went off. Fitted with a timer, the bomb caused some minor damage to a building nearby. However, no casualties were reported.
6.	January 18	Troops on a search operation in the Wattala area of Colombo district recovered one micro pistol, two magazines with eight live rounds and two hand grenades. The items had been hidden in an abandoned house at Weliamuna junction on Alakanda – Wattala road.
7.	January 25	Police detected and chased four suspected persons, including one woman and three men on two motor bikes, in the middle of the Japan Lanka Friendship road at Thalangama Police Station in the Colombo district. Police later recovered a package with two Kiwi polish tins and a gum bottle filled with 175 grams of C-4 explosives along with eight inch wire cord detonator cord left behind by the suspected persons.
8.	January 26	Police recovered two suicide jackets hidden in the Aduruppu Street in the Grandpass area of Colombo district. Those suicide jackets were filled with high power C-4 explosives.
9.	February 3	At least 12 persons were killed and around 100 injured, 10 of them critically, when an LTTE female suicide militant blew herself inside the Colombo Fort Railway Station. The bomber who apparently arrived at the railway station in a train blew herself opposite the station cafeteria on platform number three at 2.10pm. The head of the suicide cadre was lying on the platform along with a cellular phone connected to a handsfree kit. "They (LTTE) would have targeted Security Forces personnel who were returning to their bases after rehearsals at the Galle Face Green," an unnamed military official said.
10.	February 3	Earlier in the day, at least seven civilians, including two children, were injured in a low intensity grenade explosion inside the Dehiwala Zoological Garden on the outskirts of Colombo.
11.	February 4	An explosion occurred at Dandeniyawatta in the Moratuwa area of Colombo District.
12.	February 4	An IED that had been planted at the foot of an electricity transformer at Wijesiriwardane Mawatha in the Mt Lavinia went off damaging the transformer.
13.	February 5	LTTE cadres blasted an electricity transformer in front of the Rajakadaluwa Christian Church in the Arachchikattuwa area of Chilaw. However, no casualties were reported.
14.	February 21	A naval foot patrol recovered 20-kg of C-4 explosives packed in 20 packets, containing 1 kg in each packets, 23 detonators and two belts from Kerawalapitiya along the Colombo-Katunayake road, unnamed senior Navy official said. He informed the area is highly sensitive as gas tanks and oil refineries were situated and added, "A major disaster and mayhem was averted by recovering the 20kg of C4 explosives."
15.	February 27	The Defence Ministry said that the person arrested on February 25 in the Pettah area of Colombo district was a number one LTTE militant allegedly involved in many civilian massacres carried out by the LTTE in the South. The suspect, identified as Muththusami Ilankoowan alias Sami, was arrested from a hotel on Kadireshan Road. The suspect owns a shipping line which he uses to promote the LTTE’s cross border terrorist activities and had come to Sri Lanka in 2007 to promote terrorist activities in the South.
16.	February 29	Seven persons, including three police officers, were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up when police knocked on a house door during an operation targeting LTTE militants in Colombo. One of the injured police officers died later. One LTTE suicide jacket, six claymore mines, four hand grenades and one suicide belt were recovered by the police from Modera area of Colombo district couple of hours before the blast.
17.	March 5	Medawachchiy police seized a three-wheeler with three persons and war like items at a snap roadblock near the Karapikkada junction in the Colombo district.
18.	March 10	One civilian was killed and four others were injured in an IED explosion in the Wallawatta area on the Colombo-Galle road.
19.	March 25	Police arrested five LTTE suspects along with four kilograms of C-4 explosives, 10 electric detonators and four time devices from a house in the Aluth Mawatha area in Colombo district.
20.	April 8	The Colombo magistrate has allowed police to detain a Singapore national suspected of having links with the LTTE until May 7. The magistrate also ordered the police to produce the suspect, Muttusamy Ilangovan, believed to be a senior leader of the LTTE's international naval operations. He is also accused of staying in Sri Lanka although his visa had expired.
21	April 26	26 civilians, including 17 males and seven females, were killed and 40 others injured when the LTTE militants detonated a bomb inside a Ceylon Transport Board bus parked at the public bus stand in Piliyandala suburb of Colombo, at around 7:00 pm.
22.	May 12	Troops recovered one T-56 weapon, three magazines and one hand grenade from a location near a building complex on D.R. Wijewardena Mawatha.

2007

No.	Date	Description
1	January 6, 2007	Police raided the Colombo office of the TRO, but finding only a caretaker in the building searched the premises. The raid follows similar search operations in Trincomalee and Vavuniya a day earlier.
2	February 4, 2007	Troops recovered a claymore mine hidden in a three-wheeler by the LTTE which reportedly planned to attack Colombo on the eve of 59^th Independence Day celebrations.
3	February 6, 2007	A passenger bus, traveling from Colombo to Batticaloa was waylaid and robbed by LTTE cadres in the general area of Karuwankerni.
4	March 3, 2007	Police found five bodies in a marsh at Kandana near Colombo and suspect that they are victims in a renewed civil war with LTTE.
5	April 4, 2007	The unidentified dead body of a youth was recovered at Sapuskanda in the Kelaniya area of Colombo district.
6	April 29, 2007	An LTTE aircraft bombed oil and gas storage facilities in and around capital Colombo at 1.45 am. It dropped two bombs at the Muthurajawela gas storage facility of Shell and two more bombs at the main oil storage depot at Kolonnawa. The defence ministry said, "The suspected LTTE aircraft have (dropped) four improvised bombs. One of the two bombs dropped on Muthurajawela caused minor damage to the fire guard equipment of a private gas company and the other damaged water supply," adding, the two bombs dropped on the Kolonnawa, which houses the offices of the Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Limited in which Lanka IOC, a unit of Indian Oil Corporation, has one-third stake, failed to explode.
7	May 24, 2007	A suspected LTTE suicide bomber on an explosive laden motor bicycle rammed a bus carrying army personnel on the first cross street in capital Colombo at around 9:00 am killing two soldiers and wounding five persons.
8	May 28, 2007	Seven civilians were killed and 42 persons, including 36 civilians and six STF personnel, sustained injuries in a LTTE-triggered remote-controlled claymore mine explosion targeting STF vehicle at Belekkade Junction in the Rathmalana area of Colombo district. The STF vehicle moving towards Colombo was slightly damaged with its windscreen completely smashed.
9	May 29, 2007	One STF personnel injured in the LTTE-triggered claymore mine explosion targeting STF vehicle at Belekkade Junction in the Rathmalana area of Colombo district succumbed to his injuries, raising the death toll to eight. Meanwhile, the Media Centre for National Security informed that 21 persons have been taken into custody under suspicion for the attack and they are being interrogated.
10	June 3, 2007	Forty-seven people were arrested in the capital Colombo for suspected LTTE links during a special 24-hour search operation which ended at 6 am local time on June 3. The police feared that LTTE cadres may have infiltrated the capital among those who have sought temporary accommodation in the city.
11	June 7, 2007	Police started eviction of Tamils from the capital Colombo as part of a crackdown against LTTE suspects. Tamil men, women and children, lodged at low-budget hostels, were forced out of their rooms, ordered into buses and driven off under armed escorts, residents said. The move followed an announcement by the Inspector General of Police Victor Perera last week that Tamils "loitering" in Colombo were a threat to national security and that they will be given transport to return to their villages.
12	June 8, 2007	Police recovered a claymore mine, weighing about 7-kg, laid at the foot of a lamp post near the Police Quarters in the Maligawatta area of Colombo town.
13	June 10, 2007	Prime Minister Rathnasiri Wickramanayaka disclosed that the LTTE had sent another truck with over 1,000 kilograms of explosives. "We are searching for another lorry, which can cause a major damage. The explosives in that truck were enough to blow up half of Colombo," the Prime Minister said without giving any details.
14	June 12, 2007	Suspected LTTE cadres destroyed a transformer using explosives in the Orugodawaththa area of Colombo district.
15	June 13, 2007	A powerful claymore mine, weighing 12-kg, packed in a school bag was found near the Colombo-Matara railway track in the Wellawatta area of Colombo district. Police said that the claymore mine was hidden among bushes on the sea shore near the Nelson Lane off the rail road in Wellawatta.
16	June 16, 2007	Sri Lankan police has intensified security measures in the capital Colombo. Rohan Abeywardena, Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of Colombo security, said that special plans are underway to check possible infiltration by the LTTE cadres to carry out attacks in the city, adding, at least three suspected LTTE cadres had been arrested in the city since June 14.
17	June 27, 2007	The government defence affairs spokesperson, Keheliya Rambukwella, said that a number of suspects involved in abduction for ransom have been arrested during the last week. A time-bomb was found at Delkanda Market along a road leading to a conference venue in Maharagama, near capital Colombo, where President Mahinda Rajapakse was addressing the 17th General Assembly of the SLFP. Rajapakse reportedly used a helicopter to come to the convention centre and return to Temple Trees.
18	July 23, 2007	The MCNS said the intelligence sources had revealed information that LTTE had dispatched two bomb laden trucks to the Colombo and suburbs to create sabotage.
19	August 15, 2007	Two claymore mines (weighing about 9-kg and 5-kg), three hand grenades and one detonator were recovered by the troops from the Ideal Guest Inn at Sinasabha Road in the Wellawatta area of Colombo district. Deputy Inspector General of Police Jayantha Wickramaratne said the LTTE may have been using the guest house as a transit point to transport the claymores to their intended target.
20	August 20, 2007	A Tamil journalist, Sathyavel Prabhash, who was abducted in Colombo several months ago was found in Kandy. The journalist told police that he was abducted by the LTTE and threatened not to supply pictures to Sinhala newspapers.
21	August 22, 2007	The LTTE demanded a rupee one million ransom from the owner of the Ideal Guest lodge in Wellawatte as compensation for the loss of two claymore mines detected at the lodge on a tip-off by the owner.
22	August 23, 2007	A high security alert for a possible LTTE attack in an immediate suburb of capital Colombo led to the arrest of 14 suspects. SFs raided Nugegoda, a popular residential suburb east of Colombo, and arrested 12 Sinhalese and two Tamils. The search was conducted on information that the LTTE may carry out a bomb blast in and around Nugegoda. The Colombo Magistrate ordered the release of a Tamil Hindu priest accused by the authorities of helping LTTE cadres. The priest and the trustee of the Hindu temple in the Kayts island of Jaffna peninsula were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy in May 2007 after explosives belonging to the LTTE were found hidden in the temple premises. They had been detained by the Terrorism Investigation Division in the capital Colombo since their arrest resulting in their filing a fundamental rights petition seeking release.
23	September 5, 2007	Police recovered nine kilograms of explosives near the railway track at two different locations in the Dehiwela coastal area of Colombo district, informed Deputy Inspector General of Police, Jayantha Wickramaratne. Seven-kg of C-4 explosives concealed in 14 small packets and a mobile phone were recovered by the Dehiwela police at around 9.40 am, he said. Hours later, the Dehiwela police also recovered two-kg of C-4 explosives hidden in a thicket around 100 meters away from the coastal area. "The high powered explosives were packed in four boxes each weighing 500 g. The police recovered a total of 18 boxes with 500 g C4 explosives in each box," Wickramaratne disclosed.
25	September 14, 2007	Police and security forces launched a cordon and search operation in the High Security Zone area close to the oil tanks in Kolonnawa in the outskirts of Colombo and arrested 47 suspects, police sources said. The majority of the arrested are Indian origin ethnic Tamils from areas such as Vavuniya and Hatton.
26	September 19, 2007	Sri Lankan police claimed that they had found a dozen bombs hidden in a building in Colombo and arrested two people in connection with the incident. "We did a search operation in Kotahena Jampettah Street Tuesday night and found the bombs hidden in a building," a police spokesman said. The police said that LTTE may have transported the bombs to the capital.
27	October 3, 2007	Troops on foot patrol at the Lake House roundabout in Colombo found an unattended bag containing explosives and other accessories from the inside of a shop. The recoveries included 125-gm of explosives, five smoke bombs, one mobile charger, 15-ft of flexible wire, 2-ft of safety wire, one non electrical detonator, eight ration packets and one air force camouflage uniform.
28.	November 28, 2007	The EPDP leader and Minister for Social Welfare, Douglas Devananda, escaped unhurt when a polio affected woman suicide cadre of the LTTE blew herself up at his office at Isipathana road in the Narahenpita area of Colombo. While the Minister was in his office waiting to see members of the public, the woman was allowed to get into the office complex unchecked considering her disability but the PRO of the Minister conducted checking on the physically challenged woman along with others who had come to see the Minister. However, the disguised LTTE woman cadre blew herself up when the physical checking was being done by the PRO. The blast critically injured the PRO, one Ministerial aide and one officer of Ministerial Security Division, who succumbed to his injuries later.
29.	November 28, 2007	At least 19 civilians were killed and 35 others injured as a suspected parcel bomb exploded near a popular fashion store at Nugegoda junction near Colombo around 5.55 pm. Police believe that the bomb had been placed in one of the parcel counters at the No Limit clothing store by a suspected LTTE militant who had left the incident site.
31.	December 3, 2007	Security forces recovered a bomb from inside an unattended parcel detected near a telephone post opposite the house of Tamil National Alliance Jaffna District Parliamentarian M.K. Shivagilingam at Jawattha around 8:40 am.