Grenade lobbed at JVP office

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 March 2000, 14:28 GMT]
The Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna's (JVP) trade union office in a Colombo suburb was bombed by unidentifed persons this morning around 11 a.m. Computers and other equipment in the office at Dalugama, Keleniya were samshed up said a party source.

A JVP (People's Liberation Front) source said that the attackers had come in vehicles and had wrecked the office after chasing away some trade union workers who were there at the time of the grenade attack.

The JVP is a revolutionary marxist party that has contested local, provincial and the Presidential elections with considerable success since emerging from near oblivion in 1994 after being almost wiped out in 1990 by the Sri Lankan security forces.

The party led armed insurrections in 1971 and in 1988 to capture state power. Both rebellions were crushed bloodily. However, the group has again emerged as a power to be reckoned with among University students and trade unions in the capital and industrial areas near Colombo.