Recovery of explosives: CID obtains 3-month detention order

The CID yesterday obtained a three-month detention order from the defence secretary to interrogate the four suspects who were found in possession of some 100 kilos of explosives and 100 detonators at Lacktowatta in Wanathawilluwa, Puttalam.

The suspects including the owner of the land where some of the explosives were buried, were arrested by the CID on Thursday.

The defence secretary is empowered to grant a detention order for 90 days.

The CID also recovered 20 liters of nitrate acid, wire codes, two firearms, a stock of ammunition, a computer, a camera and a stock of dry rations.

A senior police official said a coordinating secretary of a minister is said to have come to the land where the explosives were buried after the raid.

This haul of explosives was recovered following investigations carried out on the telephone numbers found in a mobile phone of a suspect arrested over the incident where Buddha statutes were demolished in Mawanella recently.

A police team had raided a house at Lacktowatta in Wanathawilluwa on information received that the main suspect of the Mawanella incident and his brother were hiding there but they were not found in the house.

The main suspect of the Mawanella incident is reported to have conducted lectures on extremist ideologies to some youths in the said house.

Police are conducting investigations to arrest the main suspect of the incident where Buddha statutes were demolished in Mawanella and his brother.(Srinath Prasanna Jayasuriya)