Tamil Tiger suicide bomber suspected of minister’s killing

A SUSPECTED Tamil Tiger suicide bomber assassinated Sri Lanka’s highways minister as he opened a marathon yesterday, in an attack that also killed 13 others and wounded 100, police and officials said.

Senior minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, 55, was killed in the town of Weliveriya outside the capital Colombo. The minister had walked up to the starting line where more than 100 runners were lined up and at the countdown there was a huge explosion.

“Ready, on your marks, steady,” an official said over the public address system, seconds before the blast.

“It was a suicide bombing of the Tigers,” media minister Anura Yapa said.

Fernandopulle, a vocal critic of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and a member of Sri Lanka’s failed peace talks with the guerrillas, is the second government minister to be killed this year.

“We suspect a suicide bomber pretending to be a marathon runner carried out the attack,” a police officer said, confirming that the minister was killed instantly by the force of the blast.

“I hope you will be able to successfully end these games,” the minister had said just before the bomb claimed his life.