Police arrests Tamil owners of Bullers Road house

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 August 2005, 08:07 GMT]
Police has arrested a Tamil couple, Mr. Lakshman Thalaiyasingam, 58, and Mrs. Vipiyan Selvalogini Thalaiyasingam, the owners of the house located at 42, Bullers Lane where the sniper had taken position to strike at Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar. Mr Thalaiyasingam, an executive officer in a leading Colombo business establishment, and his wife were at the house at the time of the incident and have told Police that they had no knowledge that the assassin had taken position at the top floor of their house. The couple told the Police that the top floor was rarely used by them.

Mr Thalaiyasingam's residence is located approximately 100 meters from where Mr Kadirgamar was struck, and security around that area is very tight due to the proximity of the location to the Swedish Embassy, according to sources familiar with the area.

A bathroom window at the top floor of the house was broken and the sniper had used a 7 feet long steel stand to take position on the target.

Water and soda bottles and a pair of foot slippers that were possibly used by the gunner, were recovered at the house.

Two different fingerprints were also recorded by the police from the bathroom of the house.

Police said they believed that the sniper had used an 8.3 mm gun with attached night zoom vision.

Four sniper bullets were fired, according to the Police.

Police found four empty cartridge cases in the outside compound of the house.

A grenade-launcher-gun with 8 bullets was recovered behind a bush in the neighborhood, police added.

The attackers could not have escaped far away from Colombo, according to the Inspector General of Police Mr. Chandra Fernando. He added that special police teams and the members of the armed forces have been deployed in Colombo and suburbs to apprehend the assassins.

More than a thousand security personnel are continuing search operations in Colombo's Wellawatte, Bambalapitya and Kirillapone areas.

Armed Force personel were deployed on the streets and key locations in Colombo to search the vehicles and the buildings.

Government of Sri Lanka has also announced a state of mourning in respect of Kadirgamar.

Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge who rushed to the Colombo General hospital when she was informed on the incident, has appointed Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake to look into the funeral arrangement of Lakshman kadirgamar.

State burial is scheduled on Monday at 3:00 p.m at the Independece Square in Colombo-7, media reports from Colombo said..