Article 18

The police have now been able to get at the killers of Karate champion Wasantha Zoysa who is a holder of

28 individuals have been involved in this incident where this murder and destruction of the night club took place and by Tuesday 14 suspects connected to the crime have been taken into custody while 6 have been remanded. The main suspect known as SF Lokka including others have still not been arrested. According to what the police say, the reason for this murder is a personal matter. One of the three individuals who spearheaded this killing is a person who had served in the Special Task Force and has left the Army and is known as SF Lokka and for a period of time he had been entertaining a grudge with Wasantha. The other two concerned were two businessman who had been involved in a competitive restaurant trade against Wasantha's night club.

Though the three of them had come with such a crowd and had committed the murder by coming to Wasantha's night club known as Panorama and in a well-planned manner, most of those who came had not understood that this was a move made with the intention of murdering Wasantha. What the three of them had told the crowd was to damage the night club and after ransacking the bottles, to have a party. The person who murdered Wasantha Zoysa also is among the 8 persons arrested. According to what the police say, that person is a deserter of the Navy. There is also another soldier among the assailants. Owners of the two guest houses also have been arrested by the police. However, the main suspect known as SF Lokka has still not been accosted. This person who is a resident of Dahaiyagama has scooted away from the area. SF Lokka who had served the Army Special Task Force and had left his job legally is supposed to have got drunk and created a conflict at this night club many a time. After the said fracas Wasantha has taken steps to make the night club a place out of bounds for him. The latter who was not on good terms with Wasantha has on one night thrown a hand-bomb towards the night club some months before. Wasantha Zoysa has even lodged an entry with Anuradhapura Police about the hand-bomb attack of this SF Lokka. Whatever it is that hand-bomb had not exploded that day and after the police had deactivated the bomb and had tried to cordon SF Lokka a number of times; it was found that he had been missing from that day.

SF Lokka who had disappeared that way had returned on 25th night for the purpose of this attack. With this objective in mind he had employed the services of the two Navy soldiers and several young men in the surrounding area. The said youth were those who had been earning a living in masonry and labourer-work in Dahaiyagama area in Anuradhapura, it is reported.

From the afternoon of the day of the incident, instructions for the attack had been given to this crowd of assailants and they had been told to prepare clubs with a Nikulla tree and to prepare iron clubs and axes. Later in order to plan the murder in the night they had asked permission to have a drink by going to a guest house in Anuradhapura. However permission for it had not been given. Subsequently, they had forcibly got into a garage at the relevant place and had indulged in a boozing session. While engaged in enjoying the drink they had prepared the required face-coverings and also the clubs by wearing gunny sacks in order to carry out the massacre on the night club. The clubs that were prepared for the purpose had been selected by each assailant in accordance to its size. The iron clubs and the axe too had been prepared.

After that, SF Lokka had instructed the relevant persons that the night club should be destroyed and that what he does is only taking revenge. He had explained that though the property is to be damaged, nobody should be assaulted. But during this process, the axe had been surreptiously palmed over to one of the Navy soldiers asking him to finish off Wasantha. Subsequently the crowd had got into a lorry, a three-wheeler and a motor vehicle and proceeded towards Wasantha Zoysa's night club.

Though 28 individuals with their faces covered had come with the objective of creating serious damage to the property of the night club, only 24 people had participated in the attack while 4 people had remained close to Anuradhapura Town spying around. The assailants who approached the night club in that manner had engaged in this massive destruction as if involved in a game of fun. During the process of the attack, certain people had begun assaulting people who were there, understandably because of their drunken stupour. When this incident was taking place, Wasantha Zoysa had come out from his office room into the night club shouting, "Who the devil is destroying my hotel?" Thus when he got involved in a fight with them, the person who had the hand-axe in his possession had dealt a blow on Wasantha's face. In that instance Wasantha had fallen down from the axe blow and had died on the spot, it is reported. Subsequently they had looted the bottles of liquor in the night club and had departed with the bottles packed into the lorry. It was to a spot in the 5th Ela Wadakada Wew Rakshithaya area in Shravasthipura in Anuradhapura that they had fled. The assailants had enjoyed the liquor and beer stolen from the night club saying that they were celebrating their success in their assignment. While no money had been paid to these assailants for this assignment, only liquor was given to them to carry out the crime to become involved in the murder too, it is understood by information received so far.

Subsequently, the assailants had burned some of the wooden clubs used in the attack and the handle of the axe that was used as the weapon to kill Wasantha. Later the blade of the axe which was smeared with blood was detached from the handle and had been wrapped with teak leaves and after burying it in a certain place in the earth, a tree too had been planted over it. When the police officers investigated the said Reserve they had recovered 4 wooden clubs, an iron club and the half burned handle of the hand-axe. The motor vehicle, the three-wheeler and the lorry which was brought for the crime had all been taken into custody. The final rites of Karate supervisor Wasantha who was subjected to murder was conducted today (27). Further investigations regarding the incident is being conducted by Anuradhapura Police.