The “deadly triangle of LTTE+ NGO+ Christian extremists exposed

Due to prompt action by the Seeduwa Police in setting up road blocks, police were able to arrest the person suspected to have transported them to Mabole area in a van bearing the licence plate number 57-7399 at the road block at Kala Oya around 1 p.m. The arrested person was later identified as a pastor of a church in Mannar which is a branch of Four Square Church, a Christian evangelist group.

Sinhala Perspective from JHU

Police investigating the seizure of suicide jackets in Mabole on February 1, two days prior to Independence Day celebrations, have arrested 3 Christian priests from a fundamentalist religious sect and recovered several suicide kits.

Under interrogation the priests have confessed that they had brought down around 30 suicide cadres from Mannar to Kandy and Nuwara Eliya.

They also admitted to transporting several suicide kits and weapons to these areas.

Events unfolded when Civil Defence Force personnel K.M. Gunapala and R.M. Gunawardena who were deployed in the Mabole area arrested a suspected LTTE cadre close to the premises of the Colour Guard Company around 8.30 a.m. on February 1.

They were able to arrest the suspect Velupillai Gangadharan after a women tipped off them about two people who had left a parcel there at Mabole. The parcel contained two suicide kits, eight detonators, eight batteries, and six remote controlled devices. The parcel had been transported to Mabole to be given to a person called Suresh.

Due to prompt action by the Seeduwa Police in setting up road blocks, police were able to arrest the person suspected to have transported them to Mabole area in a van bearing the licence plate number 57-7399 at the road block at Kala Oya around 1 p.m.

The arrested person was later identified as a pastor of a church in Mannar which is a branch of Four Square Church, a Christian evangelist group.

The pastor had divulged that he had dropped four more people in Matale and Nuwara Eliya prior to his arrival at Mabole to drop two other people on February 1. The suicide jackets they brought to Mabole had been given to them by a person from Nuwara Eliya.

Police who conducted further investigations into the incident also revealed that the Christian priest identified as Nagulan had on previous occasions transported arms to Colombo concealed inside the seats of his van. After searching the priest’s church at Pahankammukotte in Mannar, security forces were able to recover three suicide kits, two claymore mines and three magnet bombs.

Investigations are currently continuing into the involvement of other priests and Christian extremist groups in transporting suicide bomb kits to the south.

Responses