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LTTE suicide attack  kills 27 in Lanka
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ASIANAGE on 06 October, 2008 03:17:41
 
BY OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Colombo
Oct. 6: A Tamil Tiger suicide bomber triggered a blast inside offices of the
main Opposition party in Sri Lanka on Monday, killing at least 27 people,
including a senior retired general, officials said.
The attack in the northern town of Anuradhapura came as the Sri Lankan military
appeared on the verge of capturing the Tigers’ key headquarters as part of a
major offensive in the drawn-out ethnic conflict.
"The LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) set off a suicide explosion. There
are a large number of casualties. At least 27 are dead and 80 injured," said
military spokesperson Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara. The blast killed the
provincial head of the United National Party, retired Army general Janaka
Perera, who was attending a ceremony to open the offices when the attack
occurred.
Along with Maj. Gen. (Retd) Janaka Perera, his wife who is a former Army
officer herself and 26 others perished in the explosion set off by a lone Tiger,
who hugged the former Army commander with explosives strapped under his upper
garment, reports reaching here said. Over 80 were wounded, 17 of them
critically.
The Opposition UNP building, which the general was inaugurating at a large
party gathering, was destroyed in the big blast around 8.45 am.
Anuradhapura district organiser Dr Rajah Johnpulle, a Tamil UNP activist whose
home and dispensary were set on fire by ruling UPFA supporters in August, his
wife, and several UNP activists were also killed in the blast, reports said. The
assassination could "lift the spirits" of the LTTE supporters worried over the
Army’s gains inside the Tiger terrain. "It’s the most inopportune time for
this suicide blast but then Prabhakaran has always been most unpredictable,"
said a Tamil leader, adding, "Perhaps this was an assignment commissioned
sometime ago and executed only now."
Janaka Perera was the UNP candidate for the chief minister post in the 2008
provincial elections in North-Central Province and had polled the highest number
of preferential votes.