INVESTIGATORS CLAIM THAT ELEMENTS CLOSE TO LTTE WERE CAMPAIGNING THAT DEAD SUICIDE BOMBER WAS ABDUCTED BY GOVERNMENT GOONS AND NOW MISSING
Extensive investigations conducted by number of detectives have concluded that a name of a suicide cadre who died in an attack few months ago has been used as a missing person’s name in a human right’s campaign against the government , the Ministry of Defense said.
“The man died in an attack carrying forged identity cards as a Moslem but the suicide cadre’s real name has been used by elements close to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE) as a name of a person who had been abducted by pro-government goons and now missing,” Defense sources said.
Ministry of Defense sources alleged Velayudan Sudarshan alias Sudan died in May 2008 ramming his explosive laden motor bike against a bus carrying policemen and police women killing scores of them while carrying forged identity papers as a Muslim named Ibrahim Lebbe Mubarak , but since then his true name has been widely used as a name of a person abducted by the government and missing and whose human rights have been violated.
The Ministry of Defense website defence.lk published details of the investigations of detectives and claimed that in fact by his death the terrorist group achieved the task of killing two birds with one stone. It said by sacrificing the suicide cadre Sudarshan alias Sudan they not only killed scores of police personnel but also tarnished the government’s good name in the international arena on human rights issues. The website published the true and forged national identity cards he possessed and the forged driving license he was holding at the time of his death.
Describing the suicide attack incident the Ministry website Defence.lk said : “ On 16 May, 2008, just 2 days before the Buddhists’ most venerated Vesak Poya day, an LTTE suicide bomber carried out a bloodbath in front of the Buddhist temple down the Lotus road, in the heart of the Colombo city. The suicide bomber rammed a motorcycle at a bus carrying police personnel of the riot squad in broad daylight killing 8 policemen, 9 policewomen and wounding over 100 civilians.”
Since no Muslim had ever been recruited in the suicide squad of the LTTE the Muslim name on the identity papers on the body of the suicide cadre aroused lingering suspicion and instigated tedious investigations , the Ministry of Defense sources further said. On numbers found on the wreckage of his motor bike the detectives led themselves to the owner of the motor bike which was used to ram the bus , the defense sources said.
The clues took investigators to a man named Jeyarathan in Trincomalee area , the owner of the motor bike that was used for the suicide killing. Although , the alleged suicide killer had left his mother Rasa Lechchumi and his sister Nirojanee, with the their knowledge it was the mother who had complained to the local police that he was missing after reaching Colombo after a day he had left. From April to May the alleged suicide bomber had stayed in a popular lodge of previous killers, at Sooriyan Rest ,18 Station Road , Wellawatte, in Colombo busy obtaining his forged identity papers and getting ready for the crime.
Describing the investigation the defence.lk website said: “According to the officials, this was the first time in the history of Sri Lanka’s war on terror, the officials could trace the full details of an LTTE suicide bomber. Interestingly, the investigations conducted by the intelligence (men) came in line with the investigations carried out by a separate department that probes into the alleged “abductions” and “disappearances” of persons. Now, the two investigations have almost come into a common end throwing new light to the recent spate of alleged “abductions”, “disappearances”, and “white van incidents”, that are being used by Anti Sir Lankan forces to tarnish the country’s good image.”
Defense Ministry sources said , anti government sources have made use of the so called missing man’s name as one of an individual who has been brutally abducted by a white van and now missing.
It was also revealed the suicide bomber received his training at the Thiruvai Aru Special Suicide Bomber training institute in Kilinochchi and his mother Rasa Lechchumi despite the false complaint that he was missing knew all the time what was actually happening to her son
By Walter Jayawardhana