Another brutal attack

The LTTE again displayed its brutality and cowardliness last morning at Wattala, five kilometres North of Colombo. This time, the suicide mission was executed opposite the Holy precincts of St. Anne’s Church, a highly revered religious site of the Catholic community.

The suicide bomber chose to explode himself creeping into the Guard Room of the Civil Defence Force located adjacent to the church. The explosion killed eight men of the Civil Defence Force on duty and wounded 17 others.

All that brutality was executed by the treacherous terror outfit while the Holy mass on Sunday morning was in progress. This dastardly act of the LTTE is ample testimony that Prabhakaran and his murderous cadres have no respect for any race or religion.

There’s no doubt that the LTTE is on the run in the battle front with troops gaining ground day by day in the Northern theatre. Contributing to that fact, LTTE’s so called political wing leader, P. Nadesan confessed last week that his terror outfit was weak and, would resort to other methods to destabilise the country’s economy.

Nadesan made three contradictory statements on the LTTE’s impending defeat on its so called stronghold, Kilinochchi. He said first “We will never let the troops capture Kilinochchi.” He said next “The LTTE’s retreat in Kilinochchi was only tactical.” Finally he confessed the LTTE was losing ground in Kilinochchi and the terror outfit would resort to methods to destabilise the country’s economy.

Nadesan’s contradictory statements came within the space of three weeks, as troops continued to advance into the Tiger territory of Kilinochchi.

In the face of humiliating defeat, the LTTE now resorts to disturb normal life outside the North. The public must be ever vigilant of suspected persons and objects around them. Vigilant commuters and bus crews averted a few deadly disasters in and around the Colombo city over the past few weeks.

The Tigers have now chosen to attack security check points and guard rooms which are occupied by a few personnel. They carried out such tactics in the face of defeat in the Eastern Province. Therefore, those Security personnel at check points and guard rooms need to exercise more caution and surveillance in and around those locations to track down suspicious elements.

The location where the suicide explosion occurred yesterday is a busy place on Sunday morning. Hundreds congregate to attend the morning Holy mass.

A few more hundreds are at the Sunday fair in the church premises to make weekly purchases. In addition, there is the Tamil Girls School and St. Anne’s Girls School located quite close to that scene of the explosion.

One must remember that the LTTE always chose to strike on such busy venues despite the day being a public holiday. Therefore, the public should not feel relaxed even on holidays as the enemy is never on holiday.

The LTTE is at present, driven to desperation by the Security Forces’ military successes. The hierachchy of the LTTE leadership is in total disarray. Prabhakaran has run short of senior fighters as many have been killed in combat.

His confidants have miserably failed in executing big tasks entrusted to them. It was only a few weeks back, that Prabhakaran sacked his ‘top man’ Pottu Amman for the latter’s failure to assassinate the Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and the Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka.

They both miraculously escaped suicide attacks within the city limits. All those heinous missions had been entrusted to Pottu Amman. Now, Pottu Amman has been recalled to Kilinochchi, reports from Vanni said. Amman is a key suspect in the assassination case of former Indian Premier Rajiv Gandhi.

Terrorism and terrorists have no race, religion, language or colour as defined by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. They are the common enemies of human beings worldwide. The recent terrorist attack in Mumbai not only sent shock waves across India but also disturbed all peace loving beings in the world.

Terrorists are an allergy to democracy and peace. They believe in the bullet and not the ballot. LTTE terrorism in Sri Lanka over the past three decades had proved it beyond all reasonable doubt. All successive governments with international mediation have held peace talks with the LTTE. What did the LTTE do?

They used the Peace Process to re-arm the organisation. Forwarding lame excuses and impossible demands, the LTTE withdrew from the peace table and began to launch attacks on Security Forces and unarmed civilians.

A government elected by the majority will of the people is legitimately bound to protect the people and the nation from the enemy. That is a stubborn fact and a commitment of a vibrant democracy. In Sri Lanka, no government has gone to war to against her own people.

The LTTE has continued to thrust a war on successive governments in Sri Lanka. Therefore, to protect the people and the nation from terrorist disaster, all successive governments have been forced to take defensive measures to combat and crush terrorism of the LTTE which had claimed thousands of innocent lives. That is the only path to save democracy from the threat of terrorism.