The day we saved Lalith Athulathmudali

By C.E. Pereira

In 1979, I took over the security of the Insurance Corporation of Sri Lanka. During this time the Insurance Corporation was housed in a rented building along Union Place adjacent to Dawson Street, Slave Island. The present building was purchased by the Insurance Corporation somewhere in 1981 when Mr. Hemasiri Rodrigo was the Chairman. Lalith Athulathmudali was the Minister of Trade and Shipping and Mr. Amarasiri was the Deputy Minister.

After the Insurance Corporation shifted into the present building, the Ministry of Trade and Shipping moved in and was housed on the sixth and the seventh floors. The Minister and the Deputy Minister were also accommodated in separate offices on the sixth floor. Mr. Athulathmudali designed and furnished his office to his own liking. The result was pleasing and he took great pride in occupying it.

The security was the dumping ground for henchmen of various governments that came to power. They were employed as security guards; but their calibre was below par and in many cases their integrity was questionable. With the threat from the LTTE it became necessary to weed out these unsuitable security guards. After a discussion with the Chairman Mr. Chanaka Silva (he succeeded Mr. Hemasiri Rodrigo who went back to his practice at the Bar) it was decided that these personnel would be transferred out and given appointments in the minor grades.

This left us with a shortage of manpower for security duties and after a further discussion with the Chairman it was decided to employ a reliable private security organisation to handle security duties at the Rakshana Mandiraya. These security personnel would be supervised by their supervisory officers but would arrange for duties and carry out instructions of the management and myself. The Sidney de Zoysa Security Agency was chosen and security duties were handed over to them thereafter.

Meanwhile Mr. Lalith Athulathmudali was appointed the Deputy Minister of Defence and Mr. Amarasiri succeeded him as Minister of Trade and Shipping. Mr. Athulathmudali continued to occupy his office on the sixth floor. This office was on the left side of the building when one faces the building from Vauxhall Street. Immediately beneath it was a set of toilets on the fifth floor which was not used. Mr. Athulathmudali usually came to office daily at 2 p.m. and worked till late in the evening.

Due to bomb explosions in the city of Colombo, security at the Rakshana Mandiraya was tightened. However being a business establishment where several hundred members of the public come daily to transact business, security duties had to be conducted strictly; but not in a manner so as to cause embarrassment, or inconvenience to clients.

At one of the security conferences held with the chairman it was decided that security guards in pairs should visit all fourteen floors every hour at least and examine every nook and corner, particularly the toilets which were situated on either side of each floor. I cannot remember the exact date; but it was somewhere in the beginning of 1984. I was in my office on the ground floor that afternoon when one of the security guards on floor patrol informed me around 1.30 p.m. that they had observed inside the closet of the toilet on the fifth floor, a contraption wired and concealed with a small light bulb which was coming on and going off at regular intervals. This toilet was directly under the office of Mr. Athulathmudali. Mr. Athulathmudali was expected in office at 2 p.m.

I rushed to this toilet and several of the building maintenance personnel too arrived there. In the closet of the toilet I observed a box wired with a torch bulb which was going off and on. There was also attached to this bulb, a wrist watch without the hour and second hand, containing only the minute hand. The minute hand had now come to about 1.45 p.m. The glass of the wrist watch was bored at the half hour mark and a needle inserted into the hole wired to the bulb. This was a clear indication that this was a time bomb set to go off at 2.30 p.m when the minute hand came round and touched the needle thereby causing a short circuit spark which would detonate the bomb.

A message was directed to be sent to Mr. Athulathmudali not to come to office on that day. To my horror the security guard disconnected the wire attached to the bulb which rendered the bomb harmless. Thank god that this act done in good faith and ignorance did not short circuit the mechanism detonating the bomb. If the bomb had gone off all of us would have been blown to bits and the entire building on this wing would have caved in, causing death and injury to several hundred people.

The entire contraption was then carried out to the front lawn and the area cleared. The Army Bomb Disposal Squad was informed and while we were awaiting their arrival we heard a loud explosion from the direction of Kollupitiya. Later we learnt that this was the explosion of a bomb placed in a room of the Oberoi Hotel killing a female employee.

After the bomb was dismantled by the Army it was found to contain thirty six sticks of gelignite.

Investigations by the Police and ourselves could not reveal how this bomb was brought into the building. It was far too large to have been assembled outside and carried into the building and up to the fifth floor toilet without being detected. The possibility is that bit by bit it was taken into the building over a period of time with definite connivance and help from an employee or employees within the Corporation. It would have been assembled very quickly inside the closet of the toilet after all the components were taken inside.

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