Sri Lankan police detained more than 50 people for questioning following twin bomb attacks in the southern parts of the island on June 6.
A claymore along the roadside as a bus was passing Katubedda, near the
That afternoon, another bomb exploded on a bus at Polgolla in
Sri Lankan newspapers reported that many of those taken into custody were Tamil university students who were detained after house-to-house searches.
Most of them were rounded up near the town of
"Fifty-one people have been picked up for questioning" in connection with the Moratuwa blast, Nanayakkara told AFP.
Some of those detained were rounded up on Friday night, while the rest were picked up on Saturday, he said.
Police also arrested one person in connection with Friday's second bus bombing in the central district of Kandy, the military spokesman said.
The defence ministry appealed Saturday to the public for help.
"Citizens are advised to be vigilant to unattended packages, bags and electronic items," the ministry said in a notice published in newspapers and in text messages sent to the nation's over eight million mobile phone users.
On the Monday following the attacks, a group calling itself the ‘Ellalan Force’ claimed responsibility for attacks on ‘transport vehicles’ and said they were a response to Sri Lankan government aerial bombardments and claymore attacks in the Tamil regions.
Friday's blasts occurred two days after the military blamed LTTE for a bomb attack on a railway track that wounded 27 civilians in
A Reuters witness said the bus targeted in
"I was on my way to office and suddenly I heard a loud explosion and saw people screaming with blood all over," said Aruna Wickramarachchi, a 45-year-old hotel worker.
"My leg was also injured from the explosion," Wickramarachchi said, adding that she was among about 100 passengers on the bus.
A 45-year-old man who identified himself only as Nalaka said he was thrown from his motorcycle by the explosion.
"When I got up I saw the bus and quickly got into it. Some people lay dead. Some others were bleeding," he told AP Television News.
An official with the police bomb disposal unit, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters the roadside bomb was detonated by remote control.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa called on people to remain calm.
"Remain vigilant against the forces of terror and continue to assist the police and security forces in the task of eradicating terrorism from our country," he said in an statement.
"This could be the start of a worsening cycle of targeting civilians," Jehan Perera of National Peace Council, an activist group, told The Associated Press.
He said the attacks were likely "tit-for-tat kind of retaliation," by the LTTE, who accuse the military of killing Tamil civilians with mines and air raids.
"The government must also be careful with its own operations," he said.
The LTTE did not comment on the attacks Friday, but if they are responsible it would indicate an ability to strike deep inside government territory despite a maze of security checkpoints around the capital and its suburbs, reported The Associated Press.
With much of the fighting taking place hundreds of miles to the north, the recent attacks have shaken the south, home to
"I don't know how this war is being fought in the north. I see that only on the television. But, it now seems the war has come to the capital," said Roshan Dhammika, a 30-year-old who drives a motorized rickshaw.
Fighting between the military and the LTTE has intensified since the government formally pulled out of a six-year-old ceasefire pact in January, though a renewed civil war has been raging since 2006.
Analysts say the military has the upper hand in the latest phase of fighting given its superior air power, strength of numbers and swathes of terrain captured in the island's east, reported Reuters.
But they still see no clear winner on the horizon.
