By DPA
Colombo : A suicide bomber blew herself up Wednesday near minister Douglas Devananda’s office in Colombo, killing his secretary and injuring at least three people, police here said.
The bomber tried to enter the minister’s office in Narahenpita, six km southeast of the heart of the Sri Lankan capital but detonated herself while she was being checked, police said.
Social Services Minister Douglas Devananda, who heads the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), was inside the office at the time but was not injured.
The person killed was identified as Devananda’s coordinating secretary.
The EPDP also has a military wing and backs the security forces in their operations against the ethnic Tamil rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The LTTE had made three previous attempts to kill the minister.
The attempt came a day after rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran vowed to fight on for a separate state as the air force bombed a rebel radio station in northern Sri Lanka, killing at least nine people.