[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 February 2008, 10:29 GMT]
18 civilians were killed and 72 wounded when a bomb placed by an identified group exploded inside a bus carrying Buddhist pilgrims to the sacred Eelam city of Anuradhapuram. In a statement to TamilNet, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have denied responsibility on this attack.
This attack is rumored to be carried out by an unidentified armed group in the jungles near to the area. It is reported that the Sri Lankan armed forces were searching these areas for the said armed group for some time now.
However according to LTTE insiders this move will pave the path for Eelam, as Buddhist pilgrims are the biggest threat to the LTTE. A large number of LTTE cadres (around 90%) are said to be affected by these pilgrims because Sinhalese are supposed to be ruthless blood-thirsty villains. Almost all the affected cadres are said to be child soldiers.
Senior LTTE cadres (cadres over 16 years of age) are said to be unaffected by the Buddhist pilgrims as they can be convinced that the pilgrims are in fact SLA troops in disguise. However, in recent times Child Rehabilitation Organization of Eelam (CRO) has faced serious difficulties in convincing inter-medium (12-16 years old) and trainee cadres (8-12 years old) that old men and woman dressed in white are villains.
According to another LTTE source, the LTTE are very happy with this development but are not going to admit or deny the charges of LTTE being behind this attack, the source added "because 50% of supporters want us to take the glory of killing civilians but the other half do not want us to admit it"
With this attack, the flow of Buddhist pilgrims to the Eelam holy city of Anuradhapuram is expected to drop. And LTTE inter-medium cadres are to be transferred to this area to carry out rehabilitation work and training in first-aid.
A report by Andarea Thiyagaraja