2ND LEAD

Colombo bans explosives to Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 September 2010, 08:45 GMT]
Amidst suspicions arising about circumstances leading to dynamite blast at Karadiyan-aa’ru police station that killed around 62 and injured more than a hundred, the Colombo government has banned explosives reaching Batticaloa district for blasting rocks for road construction, reports from Batticaloa said. Meanwhile, eyewitness accounts confirm that a big number of dead bodies were taken away by SL armed forces that reached the spot shortly after the blast. Colombo maintains that only 21 killed and around 70 injured.

The dead predominantly were not civilians, Batticaloa reports citing sources of Batticaloa teaching hospital and hospitals of Ee’raavoor and Chengkaladi, said.

A part of the dead bodies were taken towards Mahaa-oya side, some earlier reports said.

Wife of a Tamil police officer from Kalladi, Batticaloa, married just six months ago, confirmed the death of her husband by the ring found on a finger. His body was not found.

Three containers stored with dynamite for road construction by a Chinese company and kept secured in the premises of the Karadiyan-aa’ru police station blasted on 17, Friday.

The area was under the control of the LTTE since 1994.

Chronology: