The police suspect that the LTTE bomber may have intended to target a Cabinet minister. Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake urged ministers to strictly follow security guidelines issued by police. The LTTE may have intensified attacks in Colombo to tie down security forces in the south while operations to capture Jaffna continue. The Tiger tactic has been severely criticised by some Tamil observers who say that assassinations of political leaders and killing of civilians are proving to be serious obstacles in the international campaign for minority rights.
The police searched several areas of Colombo in mid-October and arrested a number of Tamil youths, alleging that three Black Tiger suicide cadre had entered the city recently. As the security forces suspect that many suicide bombers are from the east, visitors from Batticaloa are being targeted. Batticaloa resident V Pathmanathan was arrested on 26 September in Colombo. His whereabouts are unknown. Sebastian Sagayarajah who came to Colombo from Batticaloa for an operation is missing.
Complaint has been made to the HRC that six Batticaloa goldsmiths were arrested in Colombo by police on 27 September. No information about the detention has been provided to relatives. Anthony Kalpana from Ayithiyamalai in Batticaloa was detained when she came to Colombo to go abroad, but no information was given to relatives.
Tamil residents south of Colombo continue to complain of security force harassment during visits of politicians to the areas. Kalutara and Horana were searched before a visit by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake on 7 October and 40 Tamils on estates in the area were taken into custody. No reasons have been provided for the arrests.
In a fundamental rights application on 16 October, the Supreme Court ordered the release of 60 year-old dance teacher V Arulananthan. He had been arrested at the airport on 21 July, while returning after a dance event in Canada, on allegations that he was involved in fundraising for the LTTE. The court ruled that his arrest and detention were illegal.
Goldsmith Yogarajah Rajanikumar detained since June 1998, was released by Kalutara court in mid-October. The court said that the Attorney General’s Department failed to establish the veracity of the contents of the confession, even though it had been made in Tamil, the mother tongue of Mr Rajanikumar. The confession was the only evidence against him on LTTE links.