Terrorism-related Incidents outside the Northeast and Colombo - 2009

December 28: Troops recovered 346 rounds of T-56 ammunition, 22 rounds of SLR ammunition and 82 rounds of .22 ammunition from Wattegama area of Kandy District.

November 15: The troops also recovered two locally-made weapons hidden in the Udawalawa National Park in Monaragala District.

November 9: 45 LTTE cadres were arrested by the CID for allegedly being involved in terrorist activities in Kandy and detained for questioning. The CID said that these suspects had undergone training under the LTTE in Mullaitivu and had been told to work for the outfit. The suspects had even provided shelter to the LTTE and other facilities as well, the CID told a court. The CID said they had recorded confessions made by the suspects detailing their involvement in terrorist activities and moved court to remand the suspects until the conclusion of the investigations. The Magistrate postponed further hearings for November 12 and remanded the suspects.

October 11: The Police arrested a LTTE supporter who had allegedly tried to carry out an attack on the Colombo harbour some time ago. According to the Police spokesman, Senior Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Nimal Mediwaka, the suspect was arrested in the Chilaw area of Kandy District in the night of October 11 in a special raid conducted by the Police on information given by another LTTE suspect in custody at the moment. Police said that the suspect has been paid by the LTTE for his support in providing details on key places in Colombo. The LTTE had presented with him a fibre glass fishing boat, adds The Island. The boat had been found in the Mattakkuliya area. The suspect had posed as a fishermen and collected information on the harbour and surrounding areas, the DIG Mediwaka said.

October 9: The Police found around 400 grams of C4 explosives from a bus in Kandy District. The Deputy Inspector General of Police in Kandy region, Pujitha Jayasundara, said the explosives were found by a special team deployed by the Kandy Police to search the buses.

October 7: The Special Investigation Unit of the Kalutara Police arrested a top female LTTE militant from the Pahalawatta area of Kalutara District. The arrestee was a resident of Kilinochchi District.

October 5: The Mahawa Police raided a house at Diwulwewa in the Mahawa area of Kurunegala District and seized 18 dynamite sticks, 1,875 grams of Ammonium Nitrate and five rolls of service cord and also arrested one suspect in this connection.

October 3: The Sri Lanka TID seized a van fitted with six claymore mines in the Kurunegala District. According to the TID, each claymore mine weighed five kilograms. TID sources said the van was found on a tip off given by an arrested Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suspect. Additionally, the TID recovered one T56 weapon with 340 ammunitions, 100 electric detonators, two remote controls, six grenades and one micro pistol and ammunition from the van.

Police found a suicide jacket and several weapons from a house at Hansamunawa in Kurunegala. The recoveries included several T-56 guns along with the suicide jacket in a search operation conducted on civilian information.

September 30: Troops recovered one T-56 weapon, five magazines, one claymore mine, two hand grenades, five rounds of 9-mm ammunition, one anti-personnel mine and one belt order from the Karapola area of Pollonaruwa District.

September 27: Troops acting on information received from an informant found two 81-mm mortar bombs hidden in an abandoned well in the Sapugastenna area of Gampaha District.

September 22: Troops recovered one hand grenade, one T-56 weapon, two oxygen tubes, two codes, two oxygen cylinders, two swimming kits, one basket and one bracket from the Kananode and Yakgoda areas of Yala in the Hambantota District.

September 9: The Police found around 400 grams of C4 explosives from a bus in Kandy. The Deputy Inspector General of Police, Pujitha Jayasundara, said C4 explosives were found by a special team deployed by the Kandy Police to search the buses. The Police believe the explosives may have been in possession of an Army person who was in the bus. He said the explosives were wrapped in a special cover only used by the Army. However, Sri Lanka Army reported that troops on a tip-off searched a private bus at the main bus terminal in Kandy and recovered 428 grams of C-4 explosives kept hidden inside a seat cover on September 8.

August 18: Troops in the Damminna area of Polonnaruwa District recovered one hand grenade.

August 13: The Terrorist Investigations Division (TID) of Sri Lanka has arrested the Superintendent of Police (SP) of the Gampaha Division over alleged connections with the LTTE. The Police spokesman Senior Superintendent of Police Ranith Gunasekara said the SP, Laxman Cooray has been taken into custody following the details disclosed by a LTTE suspect arrested by the TID earlier. The SP Cooray has worked in the Jaffna region before he was transferred to Gampaha Police division. According to TID sources, further questioning is now underway.

August 11: Two youths were arrested from Kalutara South in the morning of August 11 along with three T56 rifles and 45 rounds of ammunition.

August 1-2: Two persons were killed and a woman injured in a bomb blast at Baduraliya in the Kalutara District in the night of August 1, Police said on August 2. The explosion occurred in a jungle patch in the rural part of Baduraliya.

July 26: Army troops in the east conducted search and clear operations in the Kalkuda and Mullivadduwan areas of Batticaloa District and Dimbulagala area of Polonnaruwa District and recovered seven rounds of 130-mm artillery shells, five rounds of 122-mm artillery shells, thirty-seven 81-mm mortar bombs, thirty-four 60-mm mortar bombs, three Rocket Propelled Grenades, rounds, ninety-two 40-mm grenade launcher ammunition, 170 rounds of T-56 ammunition, 127 MPMG ammunition, 214 rounds of 12.7 ammunition, five hand grenades and one 40-mm grenade launcher.

July 21: The Security Forces recovered 13 General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) ammunition, four GPMG drums, five Multi Purpose Machine Gun (MPMG) links, three MPMG drums, 1600 MPMG ammunition, two MPMG tripods, eight 40 mm Grenade Launcher cartridges, seventy-five 12.7 mm ammunition, one 60 mm mortar bomb, 20 T-56 magazines, six Light Machine Gun (LMG) drums, 43 RPG bombs, 29 RPG chargers, two RPG fuses, one YAMAHA boat engine (40 HP), two boat engines (200 HP), spare parts of a boat engine and one NISSAN vehicle engine from the Senapura area of Polonnaruwa District.

July 7: Security has been intensified in the Moneragala District to arrest two hardcore Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) militants, Ram and Nagulan, along with several other cadres who are believed to be roaming in Moneragala. The Moneragala Division Senior Superintended of Police, Amarasiri Senaratne, said intelligence reports have revealed that Ram and his team have gone to the East. Security sources said Ram led the LTTE unit in the Eastern Part a few years ago and is believed that he and his deputy Nagulan are roaming in the area without surrendering to Security Forces.

June 16: Army troops manning the Hatmuna roadblock in Polonnaruwa District arrested a youth carrying two detonators with him. The suspect, hailing from Amunukolayaya in Nochchiyagama, was handed over to the Polonnaruwa Police for further investigation.

May 21: Police found a hand grenade from the Giritale area in Polonnaruwa District.

May 12: Troops recovered one T-56 weapon with a magazine, 30 rounds of T-56 ammunition, one hand grenade and 2.5 kilograms of explosives from the Gallella area of Polonnaruwa District.

May 5: Suspected LTTE militants triggered off a claymore mine explosion targeting a tractor at Weliara in the Moneragala District killing one person, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara told. The claymore mine was placed under an electric fence which was set up by the Pelwatte Sugar Corporation to keep away elephants. "There is no troop movement or Army detachment in this area. It is very obvious that the LTTE cadres are attempting to scare civilians and create psycho panic among settlers in the area," he added.

April 18: Sri Lanka Police arrested two LTTE militants who had come from Batticaloa to Alawathugoda in Matale District allegedly to carry out terrorist activities. According to the Police sources, the duo, believed to be husband and wife, were arrested on information from civilians. They were staying at a temporary lodge collecting information in the area when they were arrested, Police said.

April 12-13: Five villagers were hacked to death by suspected LTTE militants, while they were returning from their paddy fields at Mahagodayaya in the Buttala area of Moneragala District. Initial reports said a group of militants in the jungle have carried out the massacre. Buttala Police said there were two children among the victims. At least two others were injured in the attack, Senior Superintendent of Police Ranjith Gunasekara said. The death toll of the suspected LTTE attack on villagers at Mahagodayaya along the Buttala-Moneragala road in Moneragala District in the evening of April 12 increased to nine, Police said on April 13. Police spokesman Senior Superintendent of Police Ranjith Gunasekara said that another four persons who were wounded severely succumbed to their injuries later in the same night. Police confirmed that three men, three women, and three children were among the dead.

April 12: Police found a powerful bomb planted inside a biscuit tin at the Nawalapitiya bus stand in Kandy District. According to the Senior Superintendent of Police Ranjith Gunasekara, the Police, acting on civilian information, found the bomb planted in a public telephone booth near the crowded bus stand in Nawalapitiya town, adding, the Army later defused the bomb.

April 7: A hand grenade was found in a three-wheeler near the market of Polonnaruwa town in Polonnaruwa District. Police later arrested the driver and took the three-wheeler into custody.

March 27: One Civil Defence Force personnel sustained injuries in anti-personnel mine explosion in the Welikanda area of Polonnaruwa District.

March 25: A group of armed LTTE militants attacked a group of farmers at Mankdeniya in the Welikanda area of Polonnaruwa District and shot dead at least four farmers and injured four others. Defence officials said the farmers were collecting their harvest from the paddy filed in a tractor, when the militants attacked them.

March 10: At least 14 people were killed and 46 others, including the Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mahinda Wijesekara, were wounded when a suspected LTTE suicide bomber blew himself up, targeting a procession celebrating Eid-e-Milad (Prophet Mohammed's birthday) in the southern town of Akuressa in Matara district. This is the first suicide attack in Matara, the southernmost region and populated overwhelmingly by the majority Sinhala community. The defence ministry said the suicide bomber "had arrived at the place on a push-bike and exploded himself among the Islamic devotees going to the mosque in a procession… Among the deceased and injured were several local government representatives."

March 4: A group of suspected LTTE militants attacked a Police post in a remote village in the Moneragala District killing two Civil Defence Force (CDF) personnel. According to defence sources, the Security Force personnel on duty at a combined Police-CDF outpost at the 18th mile post on the Buttala-Kataragma road in Gonagannara came under attack by the armed militants and during the subsequent exchange of fire two CDF personnel were killed while the assailants managed to escape into the jungles.

February 27: Sri Lanka Police recovered a high power pressure bomb weighing approximately 14 kilograms near the training school of the Special Task Force at Mahiyangana in the Badulla.

January 20: Police arrested a suspected LTTE cadre at Punagala in the Bandarawela area of Kandy District. The suspect, identified as Krishna, is believed to be a 'Police constable' in the outfit, Police said.

January 18: Three civilians were shot dead and three others injured by a group of unidentified assailants at the Sadatissagama jungle patch in the Buttala area of Moneragala District.

January 14: Chillaw Police recovered 111 locally made bombs from a beach area in the Puttalam District following an explosion of one of these bombs that injured two children. Sources said the bombs were fitted into small cans.