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It
was late Friday (25 April) evening around 6.40 in a heavy
drizzle as the passenger bus filled to capacity bearing number
63-4170 was on its way from the crowded Kesbewa Bus Depot to
Kahapola, a suburb of Piliyandala in the outskirts of Colombo.
Being Friday, the bus consisted of passengers returning from
work, school children going home after tuition classes, teachers
and shoppers returning for the week end. Passengers who had
escaped the disaster were unable to give an exact figure who in
the bus at the time of the explosion but it may not be incorrect
to put the number of passengers around 80.
The bus was a total wreck with the steel roofing shattered and
shattered window panes hurtling across the roads. The shops
alongside the main road which included many show room was also
severely damaged. The terrorists triggered this explosion a
little more than two hours after the Wolfendhal Police, Colombo,
recovered a 11 Kg Claymore mine after being tipped off by a
civilian thus averting another disaster involving innocent
civilians.
The bus had just about turned from the Piliyandala bus terminus
when the bomb which had been placed on the rack three seats
behind the driver's seat exploded in a devastating fire - ball.
The placement of the bomb on the rack resulted in increasing the
gruesome injuries resulting in 26 killed and 64 injured. Eye
witnesses were "horrified" seeing the scattered human bodies,
limbs and heads. Among the killed was a 11 year old school boy
Rasika Thilanga , and a Buddhist Monk the Venerable Wepahe
Indrananda Thero of the Kesbewa Pirivena . There was also 14
year old student Eshani Perera of Anula Vidyalaya, Nugegoda and
her 11 year old brother Anjana Perera frantically looking for
their mother who had
also been in the bus the young and the old . Eleven (11) bodies
are now lying at the Piliyandala Hospital including that of the
Venerable monk, five males and five females. Fourteen Bodies are
lying at the Kalubowila Hospital including ten (10) males and
four (04) females and a body of a female at the National
Hospital, Colombo. Forty nine (49) were reported injured
including 38 males and eleven females. Seven of them have
undergone surgery and one is in the Intensive Care Unit of the
Kalubovila Hospital Colombo.
To the "Tigers" and their sympathizers the carnage they have
inflicted on innocent children returning home from school and
tuition classes and the others returning after work would have
given them satisfaction after their debacle in Muhamalai about
48 hours earlier. This gruesome incident has only driven another
nail into the coffin of the LTTE. The damage to the LTTE can be
ascertained as according to LTTE terrorist communications
monitored by the Army, the LTTE has so far released 98 of their
dead besides the hundreds severely injured. |