LTTE contracts underworld to kill Prisons Chief

TID to question LTTE suspects, prison guards

After the discovery of a 200 metre long tunnel from Kalutara Prison to the Kaluganga, a police probe has revealed of a plot by the LTTE to assassinate the Commissioner General of Prisons Major General Vajira Wijegunawardane by contracting the underworld

A top official of the Terrorists Investigations Department (TID), who is investigating both the discovery of the tunnel and the murder contract confirmed to the Daily Mirror the LTTE had given a 2.5 million rupee contract to kill the former top military officer.

“Already five lakhs had been given to a Colombo based notorious underworld figure to carry out the assassination,” he said. The TID is to question 53 LTTE suspects who were earlier at the Kalutara prison as well as 170 prison officials in connection with the discovery of the tunnel.

He also said that last week, the TID informed the Commissioner General of Prisons about the latest threat. Information that the LTTE is planning to kill Major General Wijegunawardane is what led the police to conduct a search in the Kalutara Prisons area leading to the discovery of the secret tunnel.

Meanwhile, special police teams are working round the clock to arrest the underworld figures, who had been given the contract to kill Major General Wijegunawardane. They also said that so far police were able to gather important information about the assassination attempt.

The discovery of a tunnel last week at the Kalutara prison, believed to have been dug by LTTE detainees has led to more startling revelations and investigators are now pointing fingers at some prison officials who are believed to have been directly involved in the attempted prison break out.

Investigations suggest that large sums of money could have been offered to the prison officials to ensure that some guards were not permitted to visit the particular cell from where the inmates planned their daring escape before they were transferred to another prison. It has now been revealed that the LTTE had managed to smuggle blunt implements, baskets and fertilizer bags into the cell with the assistance of some prisons officials.

In scenes reminiscent of the TV series ‘Prison Break’ officials of the Kalutara Prison on Horana Road discovered the nearly 200 metre long tunnel, complete with electqicity for lighting, leading towards the Kalu Ganga, dug by Tiger suspects in custody over a period of one year.

(http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/09/26/news/06.asp)