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India condemns blast at Shah Rukh Khan concert |
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Both India and Sri Lanka have condemned the blast during a concert in Colombo where the top Indian film star, Shah Rukh Khan and other Bollywood actors, were performing on Dec. 18. Two people were killed and 18 injured in the blast at the concert where the Indian High Commissioner, Ms Narupama Rao, was also present. No group has claimed responsibility and a Buddhist group, which had opposed the concert on the ground that it was being held while they were observing the first death anniversary of a senior monk, has denied hand in the attack.
In a statement, the Foreign Office in New Delhi condemned the “terrorist” incident and the “perpetrators of this reprehensible act”. Sri Lanka, which said it was not a terrorist act but “a local problem”, has ordered a probe and vowed to punish the guilty. A Government statement in Colombo said the security authorities were conducting intense investigations and no effort will be spared to bring the offenders to book. Sri Lankan Tourism Minister Anura Bandaranaike has called for an explanation from his top civil servant about the security lapses at the “Temptation 2004” show.
According to eye witnesses, a grenade landed between the stage and the front row where Sri Lankan dignitaries as well as the Indian High Commissioner were seated. It seems to have been thrown from the third row, killing two people and injuring 18, five of them seriously. Shah Rukh, who apparently did not immediately realize what had happened and continued his performance until security staff whisked him offstage, rushed back to Mumbai after the security guards drove his entourage straight to the airport, hours ahead of their planned departure.
The grenade attack came just hours after police used teargas to break up a protest by Buddhists who tried to prevent the concert, held a day before the anniversary of the death of a leading Buddhist monk. Demonstrators said they wanted only religious activity over the weekend. They wanted the concert to be cancelled. Monk Ratmalane Seelawansa, who had taken part in a fast against the concert, however, later condemned the bombing and denied any involvement in the attack. Significantly, a leader of the mainstream party of Buddhist monks, Jathika Hela Urumaya, has hinted that the extremist JVP might have been responsible.
Political observers say the question of security lapse needs to be carefully investigated because there had been several serious incidents in the past, including the one in which President Premadasa was killed and another in which the current President, Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga, had a very narrow escape. It is important to find out who were behind the attack, particularly since no group has yet claimed responsibility. Prime facie, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) does not seem to have been involved. For one thing, its ceasefire with the Government still holds; for another, any attack by it would have caused much greater havoc. Nevertheless, the possibility cannot be ruled out given the murder in November of a Sri Lankan High Court judge, Sarath Ambipitiya, who had sentenced LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran to 200 years imprisonment for bombing the country’s Central Bank in 1996. The question arises whether, implacably hostile to the Kumaratunga Government, the LTTE might be at work to discredit the President and also settle scores with its enemies without drawing suspicion to itself and being accused of violating the ceasefire.
Norway renews peace bid
Norway has renewed its bid to revive the talks between the Kumaratunga Government and the LTTE even as the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo was closed after it received through post a packet of a white powder which caused an anthrax scare there. Top Norwegian envoy Erik Solheim visited Sri Lanka and held talks with both sides to salvage the island’s tottering peace process amid rising tension between Government troops and Tamil Tigers. Solheim, who helped broker a ceasefire between the Tamil Tigers and the Government in February 2002, met President Kumaratunga on Dec. 16, after holding talks with the guerillas’ political chief, S.P. Thamilselvan, in the northern rebel-held town of Kilinochchi. The talks with Thamilselvan do not seem to have made any progress as a pro-rebel TamilNet Website later quoted him as saying the Norwegian envoy was unable to give assurance that Sri Lanka’s Government “will take any constructive steps to take the peace process forward.” Solheim, who had met the LTTE’s chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham, in London last month, told Kumaratunga that the LTTE remained committed to maintaining the ceasefire agreement. However, he urged both parties to exercise maximum restraint and refrain from actions that could be interpreted as provocations.
Meanwhile, in a statement, the Ambassadors of Japan, the EU and the United States in Colombo have expressed concern to President Kumaratunga over the opposition by the JVP, the Marxist coalition partner in her Government, to the Norwegian-brokered peace process. The JVP, dominated by the Sinhalese majority, opposes any concessions being given to the rebels and accuses Norway of siding with the Tigers. The group has 39 members in the 225-seat Parliament.
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