By RIA Novosti
Colombo : An explosion on a bus in central Sri Lanka has killed at least 23 people and injured around 70 as a ceasefire between the government and Tamil Tiger insurgents formally came to an end on Wednesday.
The Ministry of Defense said that there were a large number of children on board the bus at the time of the explosion.
Authorities blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers) for the attack. There has yet to be an official statement from the militant group.
The blast went off on Wednesday morning in the city of Buttala, around 240 km (150 miles) south-east of the capital, Colombo. There is still some confusion as to whether the bomb was placed at the side of the road or in the bus itself.
The deaths came on the day that a 2002 peace pact brokered by Norway ran out. President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government had stated its intention to pull out of the agreement two weeks ago, saying that Tamil Tigers had taken advantage of the ceasefire to regroup and reorganize.
Some 70,000 people have been killed since 1983, when fighting broke out between government forces and Tamil Tiger insurgents seeking to create an independent state in the island’s north and east for the Tamil community. Tamils say they have been discriminated against by successive Sinhalese-dominated governments.
Despite fears that the conflict may now intensify, the ceasefire had, in reality, broken down more than two years ago, with blasts and clashes in the disputed areas a common occurrence.
Japan, Sri Lanka’s main donor, said on Tuesday that it may reconsider its aid package, worth millions of dollars, following the government’s decision to pull out of the 2002 truce.