Envoy has narrow escape as mine attack kills seven in Colombo
The unprecedented Claymore mine attack on a diplomat in Colombo came as troops and Tigers were locked in fierce face-to-face combat in the island’s northern peninsula of Jaffna.
Ambassador Bashir Wali Mohmand, a retired Pakistan intelligence officer, narrowly escaped although his car took shrapnel from the mine mounted on a parked three-wheeler taxi, police said.
“The ambassador is safe. He is unhurt,” said Pakistan high commission (embassy) spokeswoman Suriya Jamal.
Four Sri Lankan army commandos guarding the diplomat were killed instantly as their white Land Rover Defender took the full force of the blast. Three bystanders also died, police and hospital officials said.
The authorities stepped up security for the ambassador with commandos sealing off the main access to his private residence.
In Islamabad, the Pakistan government strongly condemned the attack.
“We strongly condemn it. We also regret the loss of precious lives,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.
“We condemn this terrorist attack in the strongest possible terms,” Media Minister Anura Yapa said. “The terrorists are getting desperate.”
He blamed the attack on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which has been held responsible for a string of bomb attacks in the country.
India also condemned the attack carried out by “terrorist elements”.
It was the first time in 21 years that a civilian foreigner had been targeted in Sri Lanka’s three-decades-old separatist campaign since the kidnapping of an American couple in 1985.
Pakistan is a key supplier of weapons to the Sri Lankan armed forces and has also shared intelligence with the authorities in their battle against the Tigers.
A bombing four days ago aimed at a government Tamil politician was also blamed on the rebels. The politician escaped with injuries but his bodyguard and two bystanders were killed.
The LTTE accused Colombo of bombing an orphanage in the rebel-held northeast yesterday, killing at least 61 schoolgirls and wounding 150.
Air force jets hit an LTTE-run orphanage in the northeastern region of Mullaitivu, the Tigers said in a statement.
The Tigers also accused the government of shelling a church near the Jaffna peninsula on Sunday and killing 15 people huddled there to escape the fighting raging in the northern peninsula since Friday.
“The number of children killed in the Sri Lankan air force bombing on students participating in a first aid seminar has increased to 61, with many fearing that the number killed is higher,” the statement said.
“It is a lie to say that schoolchildren were targeted,” government spokesman Chandrapala Liyanage said. “The air force had bombed a LTTE training centre. We don’t know if they had moved child soldiers there.”
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