A Survivor Tells A Remarkable Tale
A man who briefly rode the killer bus that was exploded at the Maradana junction last
Thursday killing over 30 has given a graphic account of the events that preceded the
explosion. Nilantha Kumarasiri, 28, was an employee of G.H. Wijesiri, owner of Siri
Enterprises of Panchikawatte, the owner of the jeep with which the bus first collided.
Wijesiri and everybody else in the jeep that chased the white Nissan Civilian bus are now
dead.
| But Kumarasiri has lived to tell the tale. He got into the bus at his boss's request after the suicide killer had hit Wijesiri's jeep. Although the bus driver had attempted to settle the damage by proffering a thousand rupee note, the jeep owner had insisted on their driving to a garage and finding out what the repair would cost.My boss told me `Nilantha, you come in the bus and I will follow by car'. That's how I boarded the bus. When I got in and tried to sit on the passenger seat by the driver, he blocked me with his arm and made me sit behind. It all started when my boss was trying to find a parking slot near the shop. He was moving the jeep very slowly when the bus hit him. Rienzie, another employee of the shop who also died in the explosion, told me when we first saw the bus driver, "Machan, don't know whether this fellow is a Tiger". | |
I remembered those words in the brief moments I was in the bus. Only the driver was on board the vehicle. He was dressed in a white shirt and a pair of blue shorts. He was a fair man who looked about 21-22-years old. Although he spoke fairly good Sinhalese, I knew he was a young Tamil.
On the passenger seat beside the driver there were four bottles of Necto, a bun and packet of Gold Leaf cigarettes. There was also a glass tube that was about 6-inches long with a diameter of about an inch. There was something small inside it but I couldn't quite see what it was. He opened one of the Necto bottles and gulped down its contents. As he finished the drink he seemed to get new life and stopped shivering. He drove the bus forward a few metres and nearly collided with another vehicle. I demanded that he stop the bus so that I can get down. He did. My boss came up there and told the driver `you can't drive the bus. Leave it here and you come in my jeep. We'll go to a garage close by and get an estimate of the damage to my jeep. I'll bring you back here.' But the driver said he could not come to a garage. You go and find out how much the repair would cost and come back.
My boss then said that if he claimed that the damage would cost Rs. 50,000 would the driver pay? He said `I don't have that much money. This is all I have,' and once again offered the thousand rupees. Then my boss said "this won't work, let's go to the police and reach a settlement. That's the moment when SI Asoka of the Maligawatte police reached the scene. Mr. Wijesiri had called the Maradana police on the phone while I was in the bus. He had been told that it will take about 15 minutes for a policeman to come to the spot because of the traffic. A message had also been sent to Maligawatte to send a policeman.
SI Asoka Perera arrived at the scene and spoke to boss. I told the SI "Sir, this man can't drive properly''. He said in that case he would take the bus to the police station and asked us to bring the driver to the police in the jeep. At that moment the driver moved the bus forward. SI Asoka banged on the side of the bus and ordered the driver to stop. Our boss and two others from our shop got into the front seat of the jeep. I couldn't get into the jeep. I ran behind the jeep. I saw another traffic policeman from Maradana getting into it. Even as I tried to climb in myself for the second time, it pulled off.
Three minutes didn't pass as the jeep headed towards the Maradana police when there was a big bang. We thought it was a bomb. I knew only then that the bus I had ridden briefly was the "bomba bus''.
