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| Sunday, 21 August 2005 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Kadirgamar assassination : Ballistic experts rule out sniper gun Crime Sunday by Jayampathy Jayasinghe
Most surprisingly the lethal weapon has been identified as a sub-machine gun that had been stolen either from the armed services or purchased from an arms dealer. It had been revealed that the distance between the upstairs room from where the shots were fired at the late minister and the swimming pool is 150 feet away. A sniper gun was not used in the assassination of the minister, sources pointed out. Following the assassination, a combined police team from the Colombo Crime Division (CCD), Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the Police Special Task Force (STF) that searched the upstairs room of the house were able to recover seven .762 bullets. Slabs of chocolates, cheese, fruit cake, packets of "Murrukku" and a sports bag bearing the name of Lalith Athulathmudali Vidyalaya, Ratmalana and popular cricketer Russel Arnold's name embossed on the bag, were discovered in the room. However the machine gun that was used in the killing has not been recovered up to now. It is believed the assassin cooly carried away the gun unchallenged while making good their escape. What the Police managed to recover was only a grenade launcher in a shrub jungle closeby, after a cordon and search operation. According to CCD's Director, SSP Sarath Lugoda over fifty persons have been questioned so far and their statements recorded, in connection with the assassination, but no arrests made so far. Meanwhile the Magisterial inquiry into the assassination was held by Chief Magistrate Colombo and Additional District Judge, Sarojini Kusala Weerawardena last week where the chief occupant of the neighbour's house and several other security officers testified. According to evidence of the chief occupant it was obvious that there was a serious security lapse down the line. The occupant in his evidence had stated that the swimming pool was clearly visible from his upstairs room. He had even inquired as to why security men guarding the late minister did not commandeer his vacant upstairs room as an additional security precaution when ever the late minister visited his private residence. Obviously, this was a major security lapse on the part of his security and intelligence services for their failure to assess the situation. According to Police sources, security personnel assigned to protect the late minister had failed to do a thorough security sweep of the adjacent upstair house and other buildings in the vicinity. The security officers were probably unaware of the potential danger looming large from such buildings. Had they done a thorough security sweep of all neighbouring houses, despite minister's assurance that his neighbours were of decent background, the tragedy would have been averted. However the reasons attributed by those responsible for protecting the late minister do not make sense. The security men too had faulted by not adhering to stringent security procedures. After all the nineteen or more top military commandos assigned to protect the late minister from a possible attack cannot be blamed. They are a crack team of fighting men trained to take the enemy head on in the event of a direct attack. It is likely that they have not been adequately briefed and instructed by respective intelligence agencies on the possible threat. In fact, it was only a couple of weeks ago that the suspected LTTE cadres were apprehended by the security forces who were video-taping the late minister's official residence. It was reported that IGP Chandra Fernando had personally told minister Kadirgamar to keep away from the private residence. Earlier Minister Kadirgamar's security arrangements were handled by Asst. Supdt. of Police M. Marzo and ASP Walgama. But subsequently as the level of threats increased, the government decided to withdraw police security and a contingent of army commandos took over security duties. Meanwhile the police are optimistic that the killers would be rounded-up in the very near future. |
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| Produced by Lake House |
The weapon that was used by unidentified assassins to kill Minister
Kadirgamar last week was not a sniper gun as it was widely reported in all
the print and electronic media, according to ballistic sources. 
