Powerful bombs thrown at LTTE political offices in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 November 2004, 03:59 GMT]
Two powerful bombs were thrown simultaneously at the political offices of the Liberation Tigers in Batticaloa town and Kaluwanchikudy close to midnight Saturday. The bombs, made of high power plastic explosives packed with shrapnel in plastic cans, did not explode due to faulty detonating mechanism, Police said. The bombs would have demolished the LTTE offices and caused extensive damage to the neighbourhoods, killing and wounding scores of people if the packed plastic explosives had exploded fully, Police said.

"Only the Sri Lanka army has such explosives. The bombs were obviously aimed at preventing us from engaging in political work and to create fear in order to disrupt Great Heroes' Week", an LTTE official in Batticaloa said.

"Our political offices in Batticaloa town and Kaluwanchikudy are located in secure areas surrounded by Sri Lankan armed forces camps and sentries. No one could have come with a large can bomb such as these close to midnight without the knowledge of the Sri Lankan military or Police", the LTTE official added.

Recently, LTTE officials sought assuarances from Sri Lankan armed forces in Batticaloa for the security of their political workers in areas of the eastern district that are under Colombo's control.