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Colombo rail blast injures 18 people

COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan capital was rocked by an explosion along the Galle railway track on Wednesday even as the Air Force claimed to have bombed three “key positions” of the LTTE in Killinochchi.

Police said a suspected LTTE cadre detonated an improvised explosive device (IED), “slightly damaging” the track between Wellawata and Dehiwala. Eighteen civilians were injured.

In the past few weeks there have been a series of explosions targeting public transport, in which several civilians have died

The blast came a day after the LTTE alleged that six civilians, including two children, were killed in a claymore attack by the military in Mankulam on Monday. A spokesperson denied the charge saying the Army did not operate in that area. Pro-LTTE TamilNet website quoted LTTE’s Director of Peace Secretariat, S. Pulidevan, as saying that the victims were on their way to a Naakathampiraan temple in Maangku’lam, in LTTE-controlled territory.

On Monday, the Defence Ministry claimed Mr. Pulidevan had been kept under house arrest by the LTTE leadership on charges of “treachery.”

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