Sri Lanka: Bomb scares shake Colombo

Saturday, 01 December 2007

COLOMBO (SNM) -- Twin bomb scares at the Treasury Building and Thalawathugoda rocked the Sri Lankan capital on Friday. Panic stricken shoppers ran for cover and road traffic came to a standstill in the city centre. However, after hours of painstaking searches, bomb disposal squads confirmed that there were no explosives in either of the vicinities. In Thalawathugoda shoppers had feared that a clothes bag belonging to a street beggar was a parcel bomb. The Treasury Building was searched following an anonymous phone threat. ATK Bandara, an auto rickshaw driver in the capital told this reporter: "We don't need the military in Vavuniya or Jaffna; we need them here in Colombo to protect us".

"The government can gloat all it wants about capturing Vaharai and Sampoor, but will that feed my kids?" he asked.

"We want security here is Colombo so that we can get on with our jobs and feed our families," he added, while begging this reporter for SLR250 (US$2) so that he can by milk powder for his starving children.

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