Republished for information and discussion only. This report does not necessarily reflect the views of Mike Hitchen Consulting. The source should be noted.
It was late Friday evening around 6.40 yesterday in a heavy drizzle as the passenger bus filled to capacity bearing number 63-4170 was on its way from the crowded Kesbewa Bus Depot to Kahapola, a suburb of Piliyandala in the outskirts of Colombo. Being Friday, the bus consisted of passengers returning from work, school children going home after tuition classes, teachers and shoppers returning for the week end. Passengers who had escaped the disaster were unable to give an exact figure who in the bus at the time of the explosion but it may not be incorrect to put the number of passengers around 80.
The bus was a total wreck with the steel roofing shattered and shattered window panes hurtling across the roads. The shops alongside the main road which included many show room was also severely damaged. The terrorists triggered this explosion a little more than two hours after the Wolfendhal Police, Colombo, recovered a 11 Kg Claymore mine after being tipped off by a civilian thus averting another disaster involving innocent civilians.
The bus had just abut turned from the Piliyandala bus terminus when the bomb which had been placed on the rack three seats behind the driver's seat exploded in a devastating fire - ball. The placement of the bomb on the rack resulted in increasing the gruesome injuries resulting in 26 killed and 64 injured. Eye witnesses were "horrified" seeing the scattered human bodies, limbs and heads. Among the killed was a 11 year old school boy Rasika Thilanga , and a Buddhist Monk the Venerable Wepahe Indrananda Thero of the Kesbewa Pirivena . There was also 14 year old student Eshani Perera of Anula Vidyalaya, Nugegoda and her 11 year old brother Anjana Perera frantically looking for their mother who had also been in the bus the young and the old.
Eleven bodies are now lying at the Piliyandala Hospital including that of the Venerable monk, five males and five females. Fourteen Bodies are lying at the Kalubowila Hospital including ten males and four females and a body of a female at the National Hospital, Colombo. Forty nine were reported injured including 38 males and eleven females. Seven of them have undergone surgery and one is in the Intensive Care Unit of the Kalubovila Hospital Colombo.
To the "Tigers" and their sympathizers the carnage they have inflicted on innocent children returning home from school and tuition classes and the others returning after work would have given them satisfaction after their debacle in Muhamalai about 48 hours earlier. This gruesome incident has only driven another nail into the coffin of the LTTE. The damage to the LTTE can be ascertained as according to LTTE terrorist communications monitored by the Army, the LTTE has so far released 98 of their dead besides the hundreds severely injured.
Mike Hitchen, Mike Hitchen Consulting Publisher of
i On Global Trends and Sydney Irresistible
i On Global Trends and Sydney Irresistible
