Seven people, including four commandos of Special Diplomatic Security Unit, were killed when the convoy of Pakistan’s High Commissioner in Sri Lanka was hit by a Claymore fragmentation mine
The outgoing High Commissioner, Col (retd) Bashir Wali Mohammed was unhurt in the blast on Flower Road in Kolpity, which Sri Lanka blamed on the Liberation Tigers.
Pakistan is a key supplier of weapons to Sri Lanka in its battle against the LTTE. This month two shiploads of arms to Colombo’s armed forces locked in pitched battles with the Tigers.
Mohammed, the first foreign diplomat to be targeted in the ethnic conflict, escaped unhurt but a car with Sri Lankan commandos following him took the full brunt of the deafening blast, killing four of the security personnel and three civilians.
A driver from the convoy which was escorting the embassy vehicle said he believed the convoy had been hit by two claymore fragmentation mines, suspected to have been placed in the back of a parker three-wheeler.
The bombing, just after 1 p.m. took place five hours after four Sri Lankan Kfir jets dropped 16 bombs on the compound of ‘Chencholai’, an orphanage the LTTE runs at Vallipunam on the Paranthan-Mullaitivu road, killing 55 schoolgirls and wounding 150, many seriously.
Sri Lanka turned to Pakistan to buy weapons after India turned down a request recently, reports said, adding that the shopping list was worth about 150 million dollars.
Col. Wali Mohammed had earlier served as head of Intelligence operations in the Pakistani High Commission in Colombo during the 1990s.
His appointment to Sri Lanka caused concern amongst India’s security establishment in the wake of reports he was instrumental in supporting Islamic fundamentalist groups opposed to Indian rule in Kashmir.
However Indian officials and political analysts dismissed reports in the Pakistani press that India’s external intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), was to blame for the blast.
The outgoing High Commissioner, Col (retd) Bashir Wali Mohammed was unhurt in the blast on Flower Road in Kolpity, which Sri Lanka blamed on the Liberation Tigers.
Pakistan is a key supplier of weapons to Sri Lanka in its battle against the LTTE. This month two shiploads of arms to Colombo’s armed forces locked in pitched battles with the Tigers.
Mohammed, the first foreign diplomat to be targeted in the ethnic conflict, escaped unhurt but a car with Sri Lankan commandos following him took the full brunt of the deafening blast, killing four of the security personnel and three civilians.
A driver from the convoy which was escorting the embassy vehicle said he believed the convoy had been hit by two claymore fragmentation mines, suspected to have been placed in the back of a parker three-wheeler.
The bombing, just after 1 p.m. took place five hours after four Sri Lankan Kfir jets dropped 16 bombs on the compound of ‘Chencholai’, an orphanage the LTTE runs at Vallipunam on the Paranthan-Mullaitivu road, killing 55 schoolgirls and wounding 150, many seriously.
Sri Lanka turned to Pakistan to buy weapons after India turned down a request recently, reports said, adding that the shopping list was worth about 150 million dollars.
Col. Wali Mohammed had earlier served as head of Intelligence operations in the Pakistani High Commission in Colombo during the 1990s.
His appointment to Sri Lanka caused concern amongst India’s security establishment in the wake of reports he was instrumental in supporting Islamic fundamentalist groups opposed to Indian rule in Kashmir.
However Indian officials and political analysts dismissed reports in the Pakistani press that India’s external intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), was to blame for the blast.
