COLOMBO, 15 August 2006 — Pakistan’s high commissioner here escaped unhurt when a powerful bomb exploded yesterday on his country’s independence day as Tamil Tiger rebels accused the Sri Lanka government of bombing an orphanage and killing 61 schoolgirls amid ferocious battles elsewhere.
The bomb planted in a trishaw killed seven people, including four bodyguards of Pakistani envoy Bashir Wali Mohammed. Eight civilians including an eight-year-old child were injured in the explosion. Anil Jaisinghe from the Colombo National Hospital told Arab News that two of the injured are still in a critical condition.
“When I stepped into my hotel, I heard the blast which rocked the city,” said a Saudi, who is on a business visit to the island from the Kingdom. The separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been blamed for the attack.
Palitha Kohona, head of the Peace Secretariat in Colombo, said this was the first time that a diplomat has been targeted by the Tamil Tigers in Colombo.
Inspector Duminda Abeykone said that the Pakistani envoy could have been the only target because there were no other diplomats or VIPs in the vicinity.
Following the flag-hoisting ceremony at the Pakistan Embassy yesterday, Wali Mohammed said that his country is open to offering assistance to Sri Lanka in its crucial time.
Immediately after the blast, the high commissioner issued another statement saying that Pakistan would extend its fullest support to counter terrorism in Sri Lanka and continue its support to the island’s government.
“We would help Sri Lanka maintain its territorial integrity,” he said, underscoring his country’s support for combating terrorism in the island state.
The Tamil Tigers have been fighting for a separate state for the past 30 years, a struggle that has claimed more than 60,000 lives.
In Islamabad, Pakistan Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said initial information revealed that the blast was detonated by remote control.
India also condemned the attack carried out by “terrorist elements.”
It was the first time in 21 years that a civilian foreigner had been targeted in Sri Lanka’s three-decade-old separatist campaign since the kidnapping of an American couple in 1985 by Tamil militants.
A bombing four days ago aimed at a government Tamil politician was also blamed on the rebels. The politician escaped with injuries but his bodyguard and two bystanders were killed. The LTTE accused Colombo of bombing an orphanage in the rebel-held northeast yesterday, killing at least 61 schoolgirls and wounding 150. Air force jets hit an LTTE-run orphanage in the northeastern region of Mullaitivu, the Tigers said in a statement.
The Tigers also accused the government of shelling a church near the Jaffna Peninsula Sunday and killing 15 people huddled there.
“The number of children killed in the Sri Lankan Air Force bombing on students participating in a first aid seminar has increased to 61, with many fearing that the number killed is higher,” the statement said.
“It is a lie to say that schoolchildren were targeted,” government spokesman Chandrapala Liyanage said. “The air force had bombed an LTTE training center. We don’t know if they had moved child soldiers there.”
— With input from Azhar Masood in Islamabad
