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Suicide bomber targets PM

by Ranga Jayasuriya

Four people were killed and sixteen others injured at Chitra Lane, Narahenpita yesterday, when a suicide bomber exploded himself after an abortive attempt to flee from a special police team, pursuing him.

Among the dead were two police officers and two civilians. The policemen were following the bomber under the instructions of the police intelligence wing. Five police officers were among the injured in the blast, Police sources told the Daily News.

Police suspect that the target was Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake who was sworn in as Acting President before Chief Justice Sarath.N. Silva hours before the blast. He was to travel via the route in which the suicide bomber was found to attend a foundation stone laying ceremony at the Divisional Secretarial Office at Narahenpita.

The police intelligence wing received a tip off about a suspicious person from a policeman of the VIP Security Division, who found the suspected youth wearing a jacket usually worn by the LTTE suicide cadres, when he body checked the bomber, Narahenpita OIC T.G. Dayananda said.

"The police officer who touched the person found that he was wearing a jacket inside his shirt and he tactically let the person proceed in order to avoid an instant catastrophe. The policeman informed the senior officer and the special VIP security teams were informed about the suspect", he said.

The area was cordoned off soon after the police was informed of the suspect. Special police teams were sent for investigation. The bomber blasted himself in front of the Chitra lane flats, Narahenpita, when two police officers in motorbikes tried to apprehend him, he said. 

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