By AFP,
Colombo : A hand grenade exploded inside Sri Lanka’s capital of Colombo late Saturday, killing two people and injuring at least nine others, the defence ministry said.
The blast took place near a bus stop in Colombo’s densely-populated Wellawatte area, the ministry said in a statement.
“Two civilians were killed in the explosion,” police media spokesman Ranjith Gunasekera told reporters. “At least nine other civilians suffered injuries,” Gunasekera said, adding that the victims were rushed to the nearby Kalubowila Hospital.
It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion. But police at the scene said it could have been the result of a gang dispute.
Minutes after the incident, an electrical transformer exploded in Colombo’s Grandpass area, the ministry said.
But it did not say if the explosion was caused by a technical glitch or an explosive device.
No one was reported hurt.
The Colombo-based government has accused the Tamil Tigers of setting off a string of bomb attacks in the island this month, killing at least 32 people and injuring more than 100.
However, the head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) political wing, B. Nadesan, dismissed Colombo’s allegations in an interview published Saturday with the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website.
“The LTTE categorically denies responsibility for the attacks on civilians in Sri Lanka.
We never mean ill-will against the Sinhalese people,” Nadesan was quoted as saying.
The rebels have been fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the majority Sinhalese nation.
Tens of thousands have died on both sides since violence erupted in 1972.
Meanwhile, the Tigers said they repelled an army advance into rebel-held areas in the north, killing 31 troops and wounding at least 52 in several clashes, Tamilnet.com said.
However, the defence ministry denied the rebel claims, saying 26 rebels and nine soldiers died during clashes in the north on Friday.
Fighting is now centred around the north as government troops try to regain vast swathes of land under rebel control. Friday’s fighting raised to 3,980 the number of rebels the government says it has killed since January.
The ministry says 329 soldiers have died over the same period. Casualty claims cannot be verified due to a ban on reporting from frontline areas. The conflict has escalated sharply since Colombo pulled out of a six-year Norwegian-brokered truce with the LTTE in January, believing it had the military strength to crush them.
President Mahinda Rajapakse has said he plans to conduct local polls and devolve power to people in the north once troops regain control of that region.
The LTTE political chief, Nadesan, said the Tamils have no interest in Colombo’s devolution plans and accused Rajapakse of “paying lip service” to a political solution while pursuing war.