Bomb blasts in Jaffna - CMEV

Several bombs have exploded in Jaffna ahead of Tuesday’s crucial presidential vote, an independent election monitoring group told AFP. AFP reports that at least two bombs went off outside the home of a ruling party activist in the Jaffnapeninsula, but there were no reports of casualties, the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) said.

“We have a complaint that two bombs were thrown at the home of Subramaniam Sharma, an organiser for the (ruling) Sri Lanka Freedom Party early this morning,” spokesman D. M. Dissanayake said.

He said Sharma’s front yard was damaged, but there were no casualties. It was not clear who carried out the attack, he added.

Residents in the northern peninsula counted up to four pre-dawn blasts, but the source of the other explosions was unclear, said Sunil Jayasekara, a CMEV monitor in Jaffna, 400 kilometres north of Colombo.

“We are not sure from where the blasts originated or who was responsible,” Jayasekara said by telephone, adding that it shattered the relative calm in the region ahead of the vote in which the minority Tamils could emerge kingmakers.