Probe finds plot to assassinate Harak Kata with claymore bomb

The plan was uncovered during the interrogation of a Sri Lanka Army lieutenant colonel, currently under arrest on charges of supplying weapons to underworld groups. According to investigators, the officer disclosed that Commando Salintha had repeatedly contacted him by phone, pressuring him to supply two claymore bombs. Police suspect the officer may have ultimately provided the explosives.

According to police sources, the gang had intended to plant one of the bombs on a motorcycle parked along the route to the Aluthkade courthouse, where Harak Kata was being transported in a prison bus. The device was to be detonated remotely as the vehicle approached.

This claymore attack was reportedly an alternate plan after an earlier assassination attempt failed. In that attempt, a suspect posing as a journalist was to carry a pistol hidden inside a camera and shoot Harak Kata. That plot was foiled following the arrest of the suspect and the seizure of the weapon.

Further investigations revealed that after the failed camera-gun plot, the attackers destroyed the camera to eliminate evidence. The recent arrests of Padme, Commando Salintha, and other members of the gang are believed to have thwarted the follow-up claymore bomb plot and prevented what could have been a major tragedy.