Bomber ruse to disrupt protest ?

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 July 1999, 18:17 GMT]
The Sri Lankan state media published the photograph of a woman today claiming that she had come to Colombo to carry out a suicide mission. However sources said that the photograph, released by the Ministry of Defence, was that of a woman who had already died.

Media organisations and journalists in Colombo said that the government published the photo and the story of a possible suicide attack to disrupt a demonstration by journalists.

A large number of journalists demonstrated in Colombo today to protest against the assault of several of their colleagues last week, allegedly by personnel from the Presidential Security Division (PSD).

When the demonstrators marched towards Temple Tress, the official residence of the president to hand over a memorandum, the police said that the journalists could not be allowed to march through as suspected suicide bombers had entered the capital.

State radio and television also made several announcements yesterday about the bomber infiltration.

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