January 10, 2008	Thursday	Zilhaj 30, 1428

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has increased its already tight security arrangements for members of parliament following the death of a cabinet minister in a suspected Tamil Tiger bomb attack, officials said on Wednesday.

The number of bodyguards and security vehicles assigned to lawmakers was stepped up after Tuesday’s roadside bombing just outside the capital killed nation building minister D M Dassanayake, said parliament Speaker W J M Lokubandara.

“The government has agreed to increase the security of MP’s with immediate effect,” Lokubandara said, adding that leaders of all political parties had discussed the issue on Tuesday.

The year began with a gunman killing a minority Tamil lawmaker, T Maheswaran, while he was at a Hindu temple in the capital.

Minister Dassanayake and his bodyguard were killed in Tuesday’s attack, which was followed by another powerful explosion in Colombo later on Tuesday.

No one was hurt in the second blast, police said.

The killing of the minister came less than a week after a similar roadside bomb in Colombo killed five people. The authorities blamed the Tigers for that attack.

Meanwhile, fighting escalated in the island’s north, with the military claiming it killed 38 rebels and placing their losses at one soldier dead and eight injured during the past 24 hours that ended on Wednesday morning.

According to government figures, 138 rebels and seven soldiers have died in fighting since the start of the month — although independent verification of casualty figures is rarely possible.

Journalists are not allowed into rebel-held areas. Both sides are known to make sharply varying casualty claims.

In the capital Colombo, the government on Wednesday heightened already tight security with heavily armoured troops guarding the roads leading into the city of 650,000 people.

Sri Lankan police and security forces have been on high alert for Tamil Tiger attacks following the government’s announcement that it was pulling out of a tattered ceasefire agreement starting Jan 16.

The Tigers are yet to formally respond to the government’s decision to pull out of the truce. The government believes it has the upper hand over the rebels and is in a position to capture the north.

Tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict launched in 1972 by the Tamil Tigers seeking an independent homeland for the Tamil minority in the majority Sinhalese nation.—AFP