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Was Suja planning attack on a VVIP at Kataragama Perahera
It happened last week in the sacred city of Kataragama that draws devotees from Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim faiths throughout the year. Intelligence operatives on a special assignment were tipped off by a civilian on the suspicious movements of a woman. They in turn told the Tissamaharama Police. Just two hours before midnight on Friday July 14, the Officer-in-Charge, Chief Inspector K.P.S. Karunasinghe, his men and the intelligence operatives swooped down on a housing scheme in Mahasenpura. From a house there, they took into custody 27-year-old Mariyadas Anthony Suja. What followed were shocking revelations of a major plot by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to wreak havoc by unleashing terror in the deep south. Among their targets were high profile VIPs. But the authorities, like in the past few months, were lucky they got to know the plans before they were executed. Conversely, the LTTE were unlucky. Some of their plans to trigger off major incidents in the recent months have misfired. One was the April 25 infiltration by a female suicide bomber into Army Headquarters. She failed to accomplish her target - assassinate Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka. On May 11 a flotilla of Sea Tiger boats tried to attack Pearl Cruiser II that was carrying 710 military personnel from Trincomalee to Kankesanthurai. An attempt by four Sea Tiger suicide cadres to attack the Colombo Port either on the night of June 16 or at dawn on June 17 came a cropper. At least two attempts to attack naval installations in Mannar to seize Fast Attack Craft failed. And now, the arrest of Suja spoke of another chilling story. Suja, a highly trained LTTE female suicide cadre, had arrived in Kataragama some two and half months ago. Police found two phials of cyanide hidden in her bound hair. She had been well briefed and sent there by LTTE Intelligence Wing boss, Pottu Amman to execute missions together with 12 other female suicide cadres. They were due to join her but Suja fell into Police hands before that. Suja had been ordered to go to Kataragama and live in the house of Kandiah Wijeyan and wife Kandiah Tirumathi. The couple has been living in the housing scheme for more than two years. Suja, it has turned out, was a hardcore LTTE cadre from Ampara. Two of her sisters have been dubbed as "martyrs" by the LTTE after they were killed in action in battles with the security forces in the same district. Suja had been told to live with the Kandiah couple until she received further orders. During her stay, she has been engaged in several other tasks. One was to purchase a house for which an advance payment had already been made to the owners. Of all things, she had been told to pose off as a woman of easy virtue and cultivate contacts with people who will become helpful. Some of the 12 suicide cadres who were to join Suja were to be billeted at the house that was to be purchased. Others were to be found accommodation in the locality. Suja is yet to identify the specific targets she and her group were to attack. However, she has provided details of a planned "commando style" attack on a VVIP for which she had been trained. That attack was to be carried out when the high profile personality turned up for the Esala Perehera at Kataragama. The Perehera begins on July 26 and continues till August 10. Though she is unable to identify the VVIP, she has said that if an attack by one suicide cadre failed, plans were afoot for the entire group of suicide cadres to get involved in accomplishing their target. Detailed interrogation of Suja is under way. Suga has demonstrated to her interrogators how adept she was in handling weapons. She had dismantled and later put together an assault rifle. The arrests of Suja and the Kandiah couple lays bare once again how the LTTE has been using money to infiltrate their way into the south. Whilst Suja has disclosed how large sums of money were used to pay an advance to purchase a house, the Kandiah couple has confessed that they also spent considerable amount of money to obtain a house on rent in the Mahasenpura housing scheme. Kandiah Wijeyan pretended to be a manual worker. Numerous instances of the LTTE paying money to security forces or police personnel to obtain intelligence information are now coming to light. This week a soldier was arrested at Weliveriya whilst in a compromising position with a female from Nelliady (Jaffna), said to be with strong LTTE connections. She has had in her possession Rs 70,000 in cash and a pass book with a Rs 300,000 deposit. The woman and the soldier serving in the north are now being interrogated by the Police. In another instance, the SLAF Chief Provost Marshal's office staff are questioning an airman attached to the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) Squadron in Vavuniya. Suspicions were aroused after he was said to be in the habit of using a private communication agency in the area regularly to call his girl friend, a resident there. It has come to light that the agency in question was being run by LTTE front men. The airman is said to have been in possession of a video camera and a pen drive. He is said to have boasted to colleagues of having a girl friend from the area. But a more worrying development for the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) came last Wednesday (July 19) night. SLAF officers in Vavuniya observed on their radar screen an unidentified aircraft flying in the area around 8.30 p.m. Independent confirmation of the sighting came from the Police who said they had clearly heard the sound of an unidentified aircraft over the "controlled" area. Intelligence sources said earlier that the LTTE was conducting night flying training for pilots using their light aircraft. The same sources said yesterday guerrilla cadres were also being trained to carry out parachute jumping at nights. The idea was to train cadres to be air dropped for attacks, according to these sources. The same sources said that the damage caused to the LTTE runway by the recent Air Force bombing has now been repaired. Four bombs had created craters in the runway but they have since been re-surfaced. The runway is said to be 1.4 kilometres long and an array of medium lift aircraft including Hercules C-130 could be landed. However, bomb attacks had led to severe damage to a building adjoining the runway, said to be a hangar. That has not yet been repaired. There has also been another equally worrying development for the SLAF. Surveillance flights by UAVs have revealed that the LTTE was clearing a large area, some ten kilometers south of Puthukudiyiruppu (near Mullaitivu). The extent cleared is said to be a kilometre long and has fuelled suspicions whether the LTTE was planning to construct another airstrip. If indeed they were, SLAF officials wonder why the LTTE should go for a second airstrip, so close to the one that exists south east of the Iranamadu irrigation tank. If the large clearing is not for an airstrip, SLAF officials are unable to discern the purpose for which the clearing is being done.
Though there have been no major attacks since a suicide bomber killed the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Parami Kulatunga (posthumously promoted Lieutenant General), military sources say Tiger guerrillas have embarked on many plans to trigger off incidents in several parts of the country. In the Jaffna peninsula, groups had infiltrated and were targeting senior military officers. In the western seaboard, naval installations at Kalpitiya and Batalangunduwa were being targeted. A guerrilla cadre on a reconnaissance mission was arrested. Upon interrogation, he bared details of how these attacks were to be executed. Additional naval troops were airlifted from Colombo but it later came to light that rough seas had prevented such an attack. The guerrillas were also planning attacks on targets in Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts where reconnaissance activities have been stepped up.
Troops in Vavuniya have also stepped up security measures after reports that the guerrillas were making concerted attempts to destabilize this strategic town. There were reports of the possibility of guerrillas moving around in security forces uniforms near defended localities in order to trigger off attacks.
Security installations and Police in the City of Colombo including outskirts have been told to remain extra alert today. This is in view of July 23 being the 23rd anniversary of the unfortunate ethnic violence in 1983. Intelligence sources have warned of possible attempts by the LTTE to unleash violence. Without doubt, the high level of alertness by the security forces and police are helping them to unravel Tiger guerrilla plans. Public awareness is helping them considerably in this task. If they are to continue to remain lucky, they will have to maintain that level and continue to maintain greater rapport with the public. A failure on their part would only mean success to the LTTE.
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