Published on - 6/15/2006
FIFTEEN CHILDREN proceeding to schools and a few pregnant women going for pre-natal care clinics were in the ill-fated state owned bus that was ripped in the LTTE claymore mine attack on Thursday (15) morning at Kebithigollewa, Anuradhapura.
The scene of the massacre with parts of human flesh strewn apart was littered with school books, school bags, school uniforms splashed with blood, heaps of rubber shoes and slippers and other paraphernalia. Pieces of yellow robes confirmed that there had been at least one monk in the bus when terrorists detonated two claymore mines targeting the passenger bus. Emotional outbursts and cries of wailing men and women resonated as more and more grief- stricken relatives as well as villagers from the area began showing up at the scene. Moving scenes at the ghastly sight of the tragedy took a dramatic turn when many of them began to identify their beloved ones at the Kebithigollewa rural hospital where 58 bodies were initially placed for identification.
The bus with 150 passengers in its full complement its doom when Tamil Tigers (LTTE) terrorists blew it up using two claymore mines in the rush hour. The death toll as at 1500hrs (local time) stood at 63 including 15 school children and a few pregnant women. At the time this report was filed, a total of 87 wounded in the powerful explosion have been admitted to Kebithigollewa and Anuradhapura base hospitals. Eight of them were later transferred to Colombo National Hospital for immediate surgery as their condition turned worse. Special Police teams and troops dispatched to the location were in the process of clearing the area after mounting a massive cordon and search operation in the affected area. The Police were also busy preparing arrangements to conduct post-mortems into the deaths of 63 civilians who were feared killed in the gruesome LTTE blast that shook the peace loving Sri Lankans, both here and abroad.
This inhuman and “senseless†massacre, as LTTE media pundits themselves claimed miserably after pointing the finger at Sri Lankan Security Forces, serves as strong evidence to the effect that LTTE terrorists are hysterically more interested in blood shed but not in the so- called “Peace talks†It is further distinctly clear that the LTTE within a matter of few hours after their return from Oslo and Geneva, has gone to the extent of committing a heinous and barbaric slaying of this magnitude in a remote area like Kebithigollewa where mostly peasants engaged in cultivations make their living.
The security forces at this critical hour of our history appeals to the public to show restraint and remain calm giving maximum possible assistance to the law enforcement authorities.
