Police grill Batticaloa drivers

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
A special police investigation team is in Batticaloa now to independently conduct inquiries about the lorry that was involved in the Galadari bomb blast.

This follows reports that the bomb was assembled somewhere in Batticaloa.

Several people including the owner of a vehicles sales outlet have been arrested in Kandy.

The special investigation team grilled several lorry owners and their drivers today.

The local police is completely in the dark except assisting the Colombo team to locate the lorry owners and drivers.

A leading mill owner of Batticaloa has been held by the team since yesterday and is being interrogated.

Other leading transport agents and businessmen of Batticaloa along with all their drivers and cleaners are being questioned at length to record details about all the journeys they made to Colombo in the last two months.

In Colombo the number of Tamils rounded up and arrested since the Galadari blast on Oct.15 is now more than seven hundred said a human rights lawyer today.