High alert in Sri Lanka
Presidential
poll today
COLOMBO, Dec 20 (PTI)
— Army and police were put on high alert today ahead
of tomorrow’s presidential elections in Sri Lanka
amidst intelligence reports that Tamil Militants would
use human bombs to disrupt the process even as President
Chandrika Kumara-tunga, who was injured in a LTTE suicide
bomb attack last Saturday, was discharged from the
hospital and shifted to her heavily fortified residence
Temple Trees here.
Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga
vowed tonight to wipe out terrorism from the island and
appealed to the Tamil and LTTE cadre to renounce the path
of violence and join her efforts to restore peace.
“We must unite,
shed our difference and our next urgent objective is to
face this massive challenge to wipe out terrorism from
our land,” she said while appearing on national
television for the first time since miraculously escaping
a bid on her life.
Army would be assisting
the police, throughout the country in providing security
to voters numbering 11.8 million at over 9500 polling
booths for smooth and peaceful conduct of the election
that would shape the future of the ethnic war-torn island
nation in the new millennium.
“The LTTE will try
to terrorise the people not to cast their vote. Our main
concern is to ensure that the people can go and vote
freely throughout the country including Jaffna,”
Defence Ministry spokesman Brig Sunil Thennakoon told
reporters here.
He said that fresh
intelligence reports suggested further attacks by the
LTTE ahead of tomorrow’s polls.
Asked if the authorities
fear truck bomb attacks by the rebels, he said all
security precautions were being taken keeping in view
various threat perceptions.
Official sources said
there was a possibility that Ms Kumaratunga, who is
likely to cash-in on a sympathy wave following the attack
on her, could go abroad, preferably the USA, for further
treatment to her right eye which was hurt after she
received shrapnel injuries.It was not immediately clear
whether the President, whose condition was described by
doctors as stable though she still had a bandage over her
right eye, would be able to cast her vote in
tomorrow’s election.
About the investigations
in Saturday’s twin bomb blasts, Brig Thennakoon said
it had been found that a male suicide bomber was involved
in the attack at the opposition UNP rally in north
Colombo just 30 minutes before a woman suicide bomber
exploded herself as the President was about to leave
after addressing her last election meeting in central
Colombo.
Contrary to earlier
belief that the explosion at the UNP rally was caused by
a grenade blast, evidence has revealed that a male
suicide bomber carried out the attack as his head has
been found at the site, he said.
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