News
Grenade in hospital: ‘Suspect sought to tip-off police and collect reward’
By Norman Palihawadane
A suspect taken into custody for leaving a hand grenade in a toilet of a private hospital in Narahenpita has divulged under questioning that he found it in a ministerial residence at Wijerama Mawatha in Colombo 07. The house was not occupied at the time.
The 26-year-old suspect, a resident of Uppaweli, in Trincomalee, has told police that he had been repairing the house some three months back and while working there he had chanced upon the hand grenade and some ammunition in a drawer of a table there.
The suspect has told the police that he kept the grenade and gave the ammunition to a co-worker. The person who took the ammunition was a resident of Welikanda and also lived at Mahawa in Kurunegala.
The suspect was taken into custody by police on Wednesday evening. The Colombo Crimes Division has obtained a detention order to detain the suspect for further interrogations, police said.
CCD sources said that they arrested the second suspect possessing 18 rounds of live ammunition. The suspect has reportedly been arrested at Mahawa in Kurunegala.
Police said that the suspect had taken the grenade to the hospital with the intention of tipping off authorities in order to receive a reward.
The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land, and Irrigation to determine the price of the maize by a committee appointed by the Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Land, and Irrigation in the future and to import only the quantity of maize that could not be supplied locally for the production of animal feed, under the supervision of the Department of Animal Production and Health.
The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the joint resolution furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development and the Minister of Industries and Entrepreneurship Development to phase the removal of Cess tax imposed on imported goods under 2,634 combined classification codes identified over 4 years [from 2026 to 2029\.
Around 140 people are missing after an Iranian navy ship sank off the coast of Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lankan navy says around 180 people were on board, with 32 rescued. A spokesman tells the BBC the cause of the sinking is not known
Sri Lanka’s navy has confirmed that it’s rescued 32 people after it received a distress call from Iranian navy ship ‘IRIS Dena’ early this morning.
Budhika Sampath, the spokesman of Sri Lanka’s navy says: “Though it was beyond our waters, it was within our search and rescue region. So we were obliged to respond as per international obligations.”
He adds: “We found people floating on the water, rescued them, and later when we inquired we found that those people are from an Iranian ship.”
He also says that according to the documentation of the ship 180 people are believed to have been on board, although the exact number of missing is unknown.
The spokesman says at the time of launching the rescue operations they did not see the vessel but saw oil patches on the water and floating life rafts.
He also tells the BBC that he rejects the reports of a submarine attack causing the sinking, and that the cause is unknown.
Earlier the secretary of the country’s defence ministry Air Vice Marshal Sampath Thuiyakontha told BBC Sinhala that around 140 people are thought to be missing.
So far, Sri Lanka’s military has not been able to confirm what might have caused the ship to sink.
[BBC]
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