Author:
Publication: Srilanka Watch
Date: February 14, 2008
URL: http://www.srilankawatch.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=172&Itemid=1
Due to prompt action by the Seeduwa Police
in setting up road blocks, police were able to arrest the person suspected
to have transported them to Mabole area in a van bearing the licence plate
number 57-7399 at the road block at Kala Oya around 1 p.m. The arrested person
was later identified as a pastor of a church in Mannar which is a branch of
Four Square Church, a Christian evangelist group.
Sinhala Perspective from JHU
Police investigating the seizure of suicide
jackets in Mabole on February 1, two days prior to Independence Day celebrations,
have arrested 3 Christian priests from a fundamentalist religious sect and
recovered several suicide kits.
Under interrogation the priests have confessed
that they had brought down around 30 suicide cadres from Mannar to Kandy and
Nuwara Eliya.
They also admitted to transporting several
suicide kits and weapons to these areas.
Events unfolded when Civil Defence Force personnel
K.M. Gunapala and R.M. Gunawardena who were deployed in the Mabole area arrested
a suspected LTTE cadre close to the premises of the Colour Guard Company around
8.30 a.m. on February 1.
They were able to arrest the suspect Velupillai
Gangadharan after a women tipped off them about two people who had left a
parcel there at Mabole. The parcel contained two suicide kits, eight detonators,
eight batteries, and six remote controlled devices. The parcel had been transported
to Mabole to be given to a person called Suresh.
Due to prompt action by the Seeduwa Police
in setting up road blocks, police were able to arrest the person suspected
to have transported them to Mabole area in a van bearing the licence plate
number 57-7399 at the road block at Kala Oya around 1 p.m.
The arrested person was later identified as
a pastor of a church in Mannar which is a branch of Four Square Church, a
Christian evangelist group.
The pastor had divulged that he had dropped
four more people in Matale and Nuwara Eliya prior to his arrival at Mabole
to drop two other people on February 1. The suicide jackets they brought to
Mabole had been given to them by a person from Nuwara Eliya.
Police who conducted further investigations into the incident also revealed
that the Christian priest identified as Nagulan had on previous occasions
transported arms to Colombo concealed inside the seats of his van. After searching
the priest's church at Pahankammukotte in Mannar, security forces were able
to recover three suicide kits, two claymore mines and three magnet bombs.
Investigations are currently continuing into
the involvement of other priests and Christian extremist groups in transporting
suicide bomb kits to the south.
