COLOMBO, 7 April 2008 — A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber killed Sri Lanka’s highways minister and at least 12 other people attending a marathon race near Colombo yesterday.
“Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle died from the explosion,” said Laksman Hulugalla, director general of the media center for national security.
K.A. Karunarathne, a former top marathon runner, was among the dead. About 100 people, some of them runners in the race, were wounded.
Authorities immediately blamed at the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
“It’s a suicide attack, definitely by the LTTE,” said a bomb squad official, speaking at the scene on condition of anonymity. The official said the explosion took place very close to the minister and involved a large quantity of explosives.
The Sri Lankan military has launched an offensive on the LTTE’s northern strongholds in which at least 100 rebel fighters were killed last week, the military said.
Fernandopulle, 55, was a member of the government negotiating team with the Tamil Tiger rebels two years ago.
Yesterday’s attack took place in the town of Weliveriya, 30 km from Colombo, where Fernandopulle had gone to flag off the marathon. “I heard an explosion and with that I saw a fireball going toward the minister as he was prepared to signal the race,” a witness said. “After that I saw people lying in a pool of blood.”
President Mahinda Rajapaksae condemned the killing, blaming it on the LTTE. “The assassination of such a committed democrat once again shows the total contempt of the LTTE to the democratic process, and its unquestioned commitment to violence and terror to achieve its objectives,” he said in a statement.
“While calling on the people to be calm and collected in the face of such extreme provocation by the forces of terror, I wish to reiterate that this dastardly act will not weaken our resolve to eradicate terrorism from our midst.”
