19.12.2007
The LTTE attempted to blow up the
night mail train from Trincomalee bound for Colombo by exploding
a claymore mine around 8.30 last night (18). However, they
only managed to cause minor damage to the locomotive. No
casualties were reported. Security sources claim that had
the bomb found its target, hundreds of civilians would have
been killed.
This
is not the first time that the LTTE has tragetted trains.
In October 1987, the night-mail train from Batticaloa
was stopped by LTTE at Valaichchenai and 40 passengers
were killed. In July 1996, the LTTE exploded 4 bombs on
board a passenger train killing in Dehiwala, killing 70
civilians. In January 2000, one person was killed when
a parcel bomb kept on the footboard of the Polonnaruwa
- Colombo night mail train exploded at the Galoya Railway
station. In February the same year, security forces defused
two powerful bombs primed to explode near a crowded Badulla-Colombo
passenger train near Hali-Ela in the Badulla District.
Courtesy
- Government Information