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Suicide bomber strikes in Colombo, 11 killed

Eleven people were killed and 24 injured in a suicide bomb attack near the prime minister's office in Colombo. Those killed include two policemen, two women constables and six civilians along with the woman suicide bomber.

In a related development, in a daring day-light attack the Old Ceylon Congress president Kumar Ponnambalam, a known Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam sympathiser, was shot dead at Vellavatte, near Colombo this morning.

Preliminary reports said that the attack at about 1130 hours by unidentified assailants was made while Ponnambalam was travelling in his car. Ponnambalam, a leading criminal lawyer, was the son of the leading Tamil politician, the late G G Ponnambalam. It is believed that the recent shift in Ponnambalam's stand vis-a-vis the LTTE prompted the murderous attack on him.

Eyewitnesses of the bomb blast said the incident occurred at around 0915 hours (local time) when security forces were conducting routine searches in front of the prime minister's office on the busy Flower Road.

The suspected woman suicide bomber was apparently waiting for a VIP to arrive at the PMO to strike. As the search party came towards her the woman detonated the bomb, which resulted in the instant death of everybody in the vicinity.

On December 18 last, at an election rally of President Chandrika Kumaratunga at the Town Hall Ground, a suicide bomber had struck killing 23 people and injuring 64 others including Kumaratunga.

UNI

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