Sir Lankan Nation Building Minister DM. Dassanayake, who was
injured in the road side bomb blast in the Colombo suburb of JaEla,
died in a hospital on Tuesday, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya
Nanayakkara said.
A road side bomb reportedly planted by the Tamil Tiger exploded
on the main road to Colombo international airport around 10.35 a.m.
local time (0505 GMT) Tuesday.
The Nation Building Minister DM Dassanayake's motorcade was the
target, defense officials said.
The minister's vehicle was hit by the blast on Tuesday morning
in the town of Ja-Ela, 19 km north of Colombo on the road to the
island's only international airport, died in a nearby hospital.
"He died a short while ago," said Lalini Gurusinghe, deputy
director of the government teaching hospital in the nearby town of
Ragama. Ten others were injured in the blast.
Dassanayake was critically injured in the blast as his white
sports utility vehicle was caught in the claymore mine
explosion.
Deputy Director of the nearby Ragama hospital Dr Mrs Lalani
Gunasinghe said that Dassanayake was rushed to the intensive care
unit of the hospital after he was injured in the bomb
explosion.
The explosion planted by suspected the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels was the first such attack by the rebels
since the government on Jan. 2 announced that it would pull out
from the Norwegian backed ceasefire on January 16.
(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2008)
