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Attempt to kill envoy: Why was call to 119 ignored?

By Asif Fuard

Investigations into the LTTE’s attempted assassination of the Pakistan High Commissioner in Green Path on Monday, have revealed that the incident may have been prevented if officers had responded to an anonymous call to 119, Police Emergency.

Scenes from last Monday’s attempted attack on Pakistani envoy . Pix by M.A. Pushpa Kumara

The caller had reportedly said that a trishaw had been roaming around the area, a couple of hours before the blast and that the driver of the vehicle had disappeared from the scene after parking it on the side of the road.

Last week The Sunday Times reported a similar incident where an alert resident of Bambalapitiya had called 119 and reported about suspicious activity but to no avail. This caller had reportedly alerted Police Emergency on August 8-the day EPDP activist M. Sivadasan was targeted.

The caller had said he had observed a man loitering around a house on four consecutive nights and that he believed he was involved in delivering some electronic devices to a man who came in a van at night to the same spot. The caller was apparently rewarded with a mouthful of abusive language by the officer in charge.

However, Police Chief Chandra Fernando, who is directly responsible for 119 Police Emergency told The Sunday Times they received many calls from pranksters, but even those are probed as all the calls are recorded. He denied allegations that some calls to 119 were not heeded.

Meanwhile, Colombo Crimes Division Chief Sarath Lugoda commenting on last Monday’s attack on the Pakistani envoy said, they have identified two prime suspects, but declined to elaborate as it could hamper investigations.
“We have questioned more than 50 people. We have also traced the previous owner of the trishaw — a Petttah Muslim businessman who had sold the threewheeler to a Tamil businessman in Pettah. We have questioned them both,” Senior Superintendent Lugoda said.

The joint investigation by the CCD and the CID has also revealed that two LTTE intelligence operatives had been behind Monday’s blast that killed 7 and injured 15.

One of the operatives is reportedly an expert on explosives and detectives say he would have made the two claymore mines that were placed at the back of the trishaw.

SasASas

By Vanessa Sridhran

In a case where 119 did respond to a call yesterday, it turned out to be a false alarm.

An employee of the National Archives Department who had spotted a group of people taking photographs inside the building had called 119 and a police team from Cinnamon Gardens station had arrived promptly.

However, it turned out to be more a case of an ill-informed group of students rather than a security risk. When questioned by the police, the teacher accompanying the students said no one had asked for any identification or informed them that mobile phones and cameras were not allowed inside. The students had taken the photographs after getting permission from an employee, the teacher said.

The Director of the Department was himself unaware of the incident until the police arrived at the scene and questioned him. The police left the building after advising the staff to strictly implement the security rules and not to call 119 unless it was an absolute emergency.

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