The 2008 Piliyandala bombing was a bombing of a
commuter bus carried out on April 25, 2008 in
Piliyandala,
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
, a suburb of
Colombo. The bombing killed 26 and injured at least 64,
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]
and was the first major attack against civilians on the island since the April 6
Weliveriya bombing that killed Highways Minister
Jeyaraj Fernandopulle and national athletics coach
Lakshman de Alwis. It was also the deadliest bus bombing since the January 16
attack on a civilian bus at
Buttala Buttala (බුත්තල) is a town in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially th ...
.
The bombing took place amid a
government offensive against the separatist
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the island's north.
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]
Details
The blast was caused by a
parcel bomb
A letter bomb, also called parcel bomb, mail bomb, package bomb, note bomb, message bomb, gift bomb, present bomb, delivery bomb, surprise bomb, postal bomb, or post bomb, is an explosive device sent via the mail, postal service, and designed ...
deposited "on an overhead rack near the front of the bus", and took place during the evening
peak hour.
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]
The explosion, which came as the bus began to drive away from a
bus stand in the residential neighbourhood of Piliyandala in southern Colombo, tore off the vehicle's roof and destroyed windows of nearby structures.
According to police, the blast killed 26 people—ten at the scene of blast, 14 en route to hospital, and two in hospital—and injured at least 64 others. The deceased included a
Buddhist monk, a 10-year-old boy and eight women.
Lakshman Hulugalle, a spokesman for the government of Sri Lanka, blamed the LTTE for the attack,
stating:
With the heavy defeats that the LTTE is having in the North during the last two to three days, I think that the terrorists have again turned to ttackingthe innocent civilian who does not carry any arms or gun.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa
Mahinda Rajapaksa ( si, මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ, ta, மஹிந்த ராஜபக்ஷ; born Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa; 18 November 1945) is a Sri Lankan politician. He served as the President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to ...
later echoed these sentiments,
claiming that the LTTE "had once again resorted to killing innocent civilians in the face of heavy setbacks on the battlefield".
Arrests
The Sri Lankan police arrested a man, Sityanadan Anandan Sudhakaran, alias Wasanthan, in connection with the bombing. He had reportedly been ordered by the LTTE leadership to bomb a bus in order to maximize casualties, and detonated the explosives via remote control.
See also
*
2008 Sri Lanka roadside bombings
References
External links
*
In pictures: Colombo bus blast, ''
BBC News'', April 25, 2008.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Piliyandala Bombing
2008 crimes in Sri Lanka
Attacks on civilians attributed to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Massacres in Sri Lanka
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam attacks against buses
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam attacks in Eelam War IV
Mass murder in 2008
Terrorist incidents in Sri Lanka in 2008