Suicide boat with explosives netted

by Kalinga Weerakkody
The Wellvettithurai police and army on Monday around 2.00 p.m. recovered a suicide vessel containing a haul of high explosives from Polikandi east situated behind the Wellvettithurai hospital .

The villagers had seen the suspicious fibre boat which had been hidden in a shrub jungle adjoining an onion plantation in the area.

Police said that on the information provided by the villagers a joint operation conducted by the army and the police with the Bomb Defusing Squad had defused the connections.

The boat had been modified by three large cylinders each "21/2 x 14" and each weighing 21 kgs.

One cylinder had been fixed to the front of the boat while the other two had been fixed on the left and right of the boat.

In addition, the left and right sides of the boat had been fixed with seven claymores in each side totalling 14.

Each claymore had been two feet in length with width of nine inches and weighed 14 kgs.

All the high explosives had been connected with detonators.

Each claymore also had two caps and all had been connected to a circuit.

The boat had been totally covered with fibres.

Police said that this was the first time that security forces were able to recover a suicide vessel of this type which could be used to explore any type of vessel. The total weight of the explosives was 259 kgs.

The detection was made by Captain Gonawala, Lieutenant Priyantha and SI Samarasinghe and team.