Sri Lanka to screen trains, buses from north

Sri Lanka Sunday said that buses coming from the troubled north would be stopped at the border between the Tamil-dominated region and the Sinhalese-speaking south, following the blast at Colombo's main railway station that killed 11 people and injured over 100.

Passengers and goods heading for towns in the south would be stopped at Medawachchiya on the border and would be transferred into separate buses after due checking for bombs.

Earlier, the government had stopped the Vavuniya-Colombo 'Yal Devi' express train.

Eleven people, including women and children, were killed and 103 injured Sunday afternoon when a female suicide bomber detonated herself at the Fort railway station here.

The suicide bomber had arrived by a train from Medawachchiya.

Ever since the eastern districts of Batticaloa and Amparai were cleared of the Tamil Tiger rebels, they had difficulty in getting access to Colombo. This was the reason that, according to security officials, Colombo witnessed very few blasts in the past year.

But the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) started using the northern routes, and had established mini-bases in the areas north of Colombo like Wattala, which have a sizeable Tamil population. A few suicide jackets were recovered from Wattala recently.

Source: www.indianmuslims.info