The desperate moments

Minister and EPDP leader Devananda arrived early in his ministerial office at Isipathana Road on Wednesday to meet people because it was his public day. Close Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras to enhance security of the minister who has been a prime target of the LTTE for more than 20 years were in operation with one of the monitors set up in the Minister's room itself.

A red three-wheeler drove up to the gate of ministry office at 7.35 a.m and parked a few metres away. A woman dressed in a yellow saree got off the three-wheeler, apparently making no payment to the driver and the three-wheeler drove away. Contrary to reports that the woman was suffering from polio, she showed no signs of it when she walked through the gate watched by armed soldiers. She walked up to the counter where she had to produce her national identity card and register herself. It was 7.56 a.m. She was the third in the line to register.

Soon after this, she walked towards the Public Relations Officer's desk where the minister's Co-ordinating Secretary Steven Peiris was seated. He later died in the blast. Preceding her was a police officer in uniform.

The woman who claimed to be a teacher residing at Anandapuliyankulam in Vavuniya said she had come to meet the minister to obtain a letter for a transfer as her family was in Vavuniya and she was teaching in Puliyankulam, an uncleared area. Mr. Peiris asked the woman whether she had brought a letter making her request, and also a letter from the area EPDP office.

The woman had neither and Mr. Peiris spoke to the minister through the intercom to brief him about the request of the woman. Mr. Devananda told the secretary to tell her to wait. He was closely watching the movements of the woman on the CCTV and was listening to the conversation. Accordingly, Mr. Peiris told the woman to take a seat in the public area.

The next few frames on the CCTV screen were shocking as Mr. Devananda watched on. The woman with her handbag made a first attempt to get up and then made a second attempt. On the third occasion she stood up. Pretending to adjust her saree fold, she raised her hand, placed it closer to the blouse and pulled out what appeard to be a detonator, setting off the explosion.

The pictures on the CCTV screen are possibly the only live pictures of a suicide bomber blowing herself. The recordings are now with the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) which is handling the investigations along with the CID. On Thursday, the minister watched the recordings with President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

For Mr. Devananda it was the sixth attempt on his life, the first two being during the 1983 July riots at the Welikada prison, but the other four had been directly by the LTTE which tried to target him.

In October 1995, LTTE cadres stormed his Park Road residence but Mr Devananda managed to escape. In June 1998, he was attacked at the Kalutara prisons in June 1998, when he made a visit there to meet fasting Tamil detainees.

In July 2004 a female suicide bomber who was sent to his Kollupitiya office was detected and taken to the police station where she triggered off the explosion killing five policemen.