Three killed in Kalmunai bomb

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 September 2000, 16:07 GMT]
Two police officers and an informant were killed when a bomb went off in Kalmunai town around 3.30 p.m. Monday. The explosion occurred as a bomb disposal unit from the Special Task Force (STF) was about to de-activate the explosive devise concealed in a van. Seven policemen were also wounded in the blast said sources.

Police officers from the Counter Subversive Unit (CSU) in Ampara had arrested four youths at Manatchenai and were returning in a van which they had confiscated with the suspects the sources said.

On finding explosives in the van, the police officers had summoned the STF unit. The bomb went off while it was being de-activated, according to police sources in the south-eastern town of Ampara.

The CSU officers killed in the incident were identified as Sergeant Sisirakumara Ratnatilaka and Lakshman Jeyakantha. The wounded police personnel were admitted to the Ampara hospital.