Bus bomb found in Moratuwa; vigilant civilians avert 2 terror attacks in one day

Vigilant civilians yesterday (May 24) foiled two cowardly attempts made by LTTE terrorist to massacre civilians in the Moratuwa and Ganemulla areas, defence sources said.

According to the sources, a civilian had found a time bomb weighing 3kg, the second finding for the day, placed inside a public transport bus that had been plying from Colombo to Moratuwa around 8 pm. The civilian had become suspicious about an ownerless parcel left in the bus and informed the matter to the bus conductor, the sources further said. The bus conductor had immediately stopped the bus at Rawathawatte , asked the passengers to get down from the bus and informed the 119 emergency service, the sources added.

The army bomb squad rushed to the location and found that the parcel was a time bomb and later defused it, said the sources.

Earlier on the same day evening, a bus conductor found 1.25 kg time bomb placed inside a bus that was to travel from Parkandeniya to Colombo. The conductor had detected the ownerless parcel at the end of a trip and threw it away at a remote place close to Kossinna temple. Then he informed the 119 emergency service operated by the Ministry of Defence. The Police Special Task Force (STF) bomb squad rushed to the location and disposed the bomb.

The two civilians whose vigilance is strong enough to defeat the cunning tactics of bloodthirsty LTTE terrorist saved dozen of innocent lives. Their deeds should be honoured by the whole nation. Further, defence.lk reminds the public that the terrorist who had placed those bombs are still freely moving in the society looking to plan another cowardly attack. This is the greatest challenge in the counter terrorist warfare because unlike in conventional warfare these terrorist can act as innocent civilians no matter how many lives they had taken. Further, there are many outfits tasked by the LTTE to look after its agents. These outfits usually operate under most righteous themes like, civil rights, free media, human rights and etc, and do everything they can to prevent law enforcement authorities laying hands of those terror agents. Therefore , we request the general public to understand this bitter truth and to give their maximum corporation to the armed forces in defeating this decades old terrorist menace.