Father, an ex-soldier, separated from wife, holds children hostage
Threatened to detonate hand grenade
Injected daughter with indeterminate substance
A father who had held his two children hostage in the Jalthara area in Hanwella on Sunday (5) night, threatening to detonate a grenade that was in his possession, was arrested by the Police and Special Task Force (STF) teams and was yesterday remanded until May 17.
The suspect has a daughter, aged 10 and a son, aged 2. He had returned from employment in Dubai about three months back and had found that his wife had changed the place of residence. He had later heard that his wife was staying at the Jalthara Government Servants’ Housing Complex and had visited the place in the guise of a courier and had gone to several houses.
Later, he had seen his children playing in front of the housing complex and after following them had found where his wife was staying.
Seeing that he had a hand grenade in his hand, his wife immediately reacted and pushed the two children into a room and fled from the place.
When he discovered that his wife has fled that house, he had taken his two children hostage and had injected the elder child with an indeterminate substance, Police Media said.
Police said that the 39-year-old suspect who is an ex-Army soldier, had taken his two children to an upstairs room in the house and had frightened them by showing the hand grenade and had injected the elder child with the substance to prevent her from making any noise.
After the Hanwella Police received a complaint from the suspect’s wife about the suspect holding the two children hostage with a hand grenade, a team of Hanwella Police together with a team of the STF Weapons and Tactics team and STF Bomb Disposal Unit had raided the house at the Jalthara Government Servants’ Housing Complex, at around 10.30 pm and had arrested the suspect with great effort, seizing the hand grenade and rescuing the two children.
The wife had fled and hid herself after discovering that her husband had arrived at her house and after receiving a call from him threatening to detonate the hand grenade in the presence of the two children, she had informed the Hanwella Police about the incident.
The STF and Police teams attempted with great effort to rescue the two children held captive by the suspect, by talking to him for many hours, and had failed, as the suspect had refused to give in. However, after conducting a raid with tactical maneuvering for a few hours, the team of STF officers had broken into the room where the two children were held hostage and rescued them.
The two children, who showed signs of ill health due to having the sedative injected into them by the suspect, were admitted to the Homagama Base Hospital and have been reported to be in good health by hospital sources. Police produced the suspect before the Homagama Magistrate’s Court yesterday and he has been remanded until May 17.
The Hanwella Police are conducting further investigations into the incident.
Varuna Dayaratne
