Sri Lanka asks for public help to find bus bombing suspects
COLOMBO (AFP) — Sri Lanka's police Sunday sought public help to track down two men believed to have planted a powerful bomb on a crowded bus that killed 20 passengers and wounded more than 60.
The parcel bomb, left on an overhead rack of a long-distance bus in northern Sri Lanka, was set off on Saturday morning using a mobile phone, a police spokesman said.
"We have information that two people got off the bus before the bomb went off," police Deputy Inspector-General Kingsley Ekanayaka said. "We are trying to track them down. A search is underway."
Police said 68 people were still being treated in three hospitals.
The bomb ripped through the privately-owned vehicle at a bus station in Dambulla, 150 kilometres (93 miles) north of Colombo. The bus had stopped en route to the Buddhist pilgrimage town of Anuradhapura, police said.
The station is a key transit point in the region. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels set off a powerful suicide truck bomb in the same area in October 2006, killing at least 116 sailors heading home on leave.
President Mahinda Rajapakse condemned the bombing and urged Sri Lankans not to be provoked by what he called the "savage attack" by the Tamil Tigers.
The government in January pulled out of a tattered peace pact with the rebels, who have been fighting for a separate Tamil homeland since 1972, a conflict that has left tens of thousands dead.
Saturday's attack came as Sri Lanka stepped up security ahead of festivities on Monday to mark the country's 60th anniversary of independence from Britain.
Police increased already tight security in the capital over the weekend and carried out an intensive search along the main road to the international airport, finding "suicide jackets," which are usually worn by LTTE bombers.
A government minister was killed on the same highway in January when rebels set off a roadside bomb.
On Friday, a suicide bomber on a bicycle killed four people in northern Jaffna peninsula, an attack the military blamed on the Tigers.
They were also blamed for bombing a bus in the south last month, killing 27 passengers, and later 10 civilians who died in a separate attack in the same area.
Meanwhile, the Tigers accused the military of blowing up a school bus inside rebel-held territory last month, which killed 18 people, including 11 children.
