Story related by lorry driver who transported bombs of Zaharan and crowd to Kalmunai

Story related by lorry driver who transported  bombs of Zaharan and crowd to Kalmunai

After the brutal attack on Easter day, the terrorists were getting ready for the second series of attacks. It has now been confirmed. But it was not by a miracle that it was possible to avert that series of attacks ... but by a act of bravery by a civilian and it was 44 year old Withanage Shanthalal living in Yatiyana, Nittambuwa. It was he who transported bombs of Zaharan and his accomplices contained in the lorry driven from Negombo to Kalmunai. 

Shanthalal who was a part and parcel of this significant operation which safeguarded the nation was

fatigued and told the media his story and that was at a time his whole family was facing a severe conflict. When we stepped into his home last Tuesday he was depressed. But it was that afternoon the President stated that a cash donation of 50 lakhs would be bestowed appreciating Shanthalal.

"Those who died and sustained injuries because of terrorists ... I have an unbearable pain about them. I will do some meritorious deed for those people with this money", Shanthalal told us that evening. It was on Tuesday morning that he unfolded to us the horrible experience he underwent after taking the lorry loaded with bombs unaware that they were terrorists. While talking to us, he receives a telephone call. It was from debtors ... from leasing companies. In the midst of all that he began to unravel his experiences before us. 

"I am in debt upto my neck in millions because of business. I took the lorry on finance to do business. But there's no business. So I managed to see in the newspapers and joined the Yakkala branch of a cab service in Bellanwila last March. But I used to get hires only once in a way. That day was April 9th. The cab service called me and said, "Got a good hire ... from Negombo to Amparai. Will get a good fee. So saying the phone number of the person going was given. 

I called the number given. The person who answered asked me to come to Negombo Katuwapitiya Road. From the speech I realised that he was not Sinhalese, Tamil or Muslim. I said that I didn't know Katuwapitiya. I was told that there was no hurry ... to come slowly ... that they will be near Nawaloka hospital. When I reached the said hospital by 11.15 in the night there was a person on a scooty bike. He asked me to come behind him and he turned to Katuwapitiya road. 

Went about one and a half kilometres and after going along a concrete road and he stopped near a two-storied house with large gates close to a small junction of three roads. There was a Batta van in the yard. The top floor was dark. There were six males to be seen down floor. But they did not look Muslims. There was an aged lean person also and apologised for the delay. All of them opened the lorry and after having a look, said, "Ah this is fine". 

No sooner I went home they gave me a box full of high-quality dates from abroad".  He showed us that box of dates still in his possession. "Haven't eaten from morning; had only water ... shall eat this", I said. Then they said, "Don't don't ... take it for the children . Will give to eat separately". So saying they brought and gave enough of dates. After that they went inside the house and looked at what was to be taken. Among those items was a washing machine, a fridge, gas cylinder, sacks of fertilizer, plastic chairs, generator, basins, white - black coloured booli with something inside ... too many items to be loaded into a lorry. They told me that they would load the stuff and asked me to go to sleep. But I did not sleep. I loaded those things with them. One of them got into the lorry. It was the booli that they loaded first. When asked what those were;  was told that it was sulphuric acid and that is what is called 'gini wathura'. I was told that it was to heat gold articles and that they were going to open up a workshop there". About 30 such booli were loaded. 

I said that I want to have my phone charged. One person took it  with the charger itself. In a short while I too went inside to see if the phone was charging. I saw a fat person and a lean person sitting on the floor dressed in sarong in a room and murmuring something. They looked at me at once and burst into a smile. I can remember his face very well. Now the goods were loaded and the lorry was full. Last of all they bring an iron bed and a mattress. I shouted out and said that the fridge and the washing machine would get scraped. "No problem ... thoe will be given to the workers", one fellow replied. These people behaved very cordially. 

We set off to go. The time was 12.30. Then all of them said, "You eat and drink well ... if you feel sleepy, go and sleep. Go slowly". One of them got into the lorry and that was one of those who were seated on the floor when I went into the room ... the lean fellow. When we reached Kalmunai the time was about 12.30 in the afternoon. As soon as we left the house I in fact asked why they were going from that house. Then I was told, "We took the house on rent for 45000. Did textile business. Later started making gold jewellery. It was Sinhalese people who bought items from us most. When we were growing, the owner asked for the house". He further said, "Because it is the avurudu season there is a lot of work. That is why we are going in a hurry to Kalmunai to open up a workshop". Then he said, "There are two Batta vans to take the goods. But because the items have to be given to the jewellery shops that a vehicle was taken on hire". He spoke about business also. Said that a commission of three four lakhs were given to the workers. When I asked how can such a big amount be paid, he said that they have earned very well now. 

There was no fuel in the lorry. There was no shed open anywhere. However, towards Badalgama a shed was open. Just near the pomp of the shed the lorry came to a halt without fuel. Pumped Rs. five thousand worth petrol There was a problem with a tyre. But there was no place open to repair it. The person who went with me got a call at midnight ... rattling off in Tamil. In the process his request always to come and have a tea. Around Dambulla Digampathaha had tea we reached Kaduruwela around five thirty in the morning. This fellow went to mosque. 

After passing Manampitiya a hell of a thing happened. A person who was coming forward on a bike was signalling something by hand and was pointing at the ground. Both of us did not understand what it was. When we were passing the person on the bike kept scolding us.  Just then suddenly an elephant came rushing to the road. What that man said was that an elephant was approaching. The elephant is now rushing in forward. The person going in the lorry shouted asking that the orry be reversed. The elephant was charging. I was taking a reverse as much as possible. The elephant all of a sudden turned back and went away. Because I was terrified I stopped for a while and took the wheel once again. 

It was at Batticaloa that we got a chance to attend to the problem with the tyre. By that time the time was about eight. The tube has given way to the last. I could not imagine how I came that distance with such a load. Waited for about one and a half hours and got down a tyre and got the tyre done. The person who went with me stayed with me so patiently. But he would get calls constantly. 

It was past nine in the morning. Both of us have still not had breakfast. Though the vehicle was stopped near a kiosk and went for the meals, this fellow turned and came back. He came and said police have come and to proceed quickly. I wondered what was wrong in police being there. But that went out of my mind anyway. We had breakfast from another place. We reached Batticaloa. That was the second time I went to Batticaloa. The person who came with me said to proceed by asking directions to go. What he too said was that it was only once that he had come to Batticaloa ... though having brought lakhs worth of goods. Now both of us are asking for directions to go to Kalmunai. I realised that this fellow does not have any knowledge about this place. We then met a person near a green mosque and on a motor bike wearing a helmet. He was someone who was waiting till our lorry arrived. 

After this I drove the lorry behind the motor bike. "We should go to Samanthurai ... nine kilometres from Kalmunai', the motor-cyclist said. The person who came with me said that he was a businessman dealing in sandals and shoes. After going a short distance we turned right from a statue. That area was a congested location full of houses. Coming from there we turned from a junction to Amparai road. The motor-cyclist went ahead of us. It looked that he was in search of some road. 

Now we have come to Sengal hamlet in Samanthurai. Just then an elderly woman and a young girl came running from a house. They opened the roller-gate in a nearby house. Now we were to unload the goods here. My companion would help in pushing out the goods to be unloaded. The motor-cyclist and I would keep those in the house. First of all we unloaded the bed. The washing machine and other things were moved aside and the booli inside were unloaded there. When I asked, I was told that the sacks of fertilizer were unloaded to be used for the paddy fields and that the other items were for another house. 

So the balance stuff was taken to the second house. We had come to a house in Nindavur. We unloaded that stuff there. After unloading the goods they paid me some extra cash apart from my hiring charges. The fellow who accompanied me upto that point took out a parcel which was hidden at a spot in the vehicle and stopped in Kalmunai. While returning he was given several calls; but he did not respond. 

I came home and bought a tender of clothes from eyangoda Naiwala garment factory in order to start a clothing business from 22nd by operating from home. Siriwardena, Ranil and Shalaka the officers there helped me. But because of the Easter attack the business had to be stopped. 

When watching TV on the day of the Easter attack I heard mention being made of Katuwapitiya church. Spoke about Batticaloa ... spoke about Muslim nationals. I told my son ... puthe, what are they saying .. I was told to come along Katuwapitiya road, no ... loaded items from a large house. Muslim uncles also were there. Now everything was in a mess. Every incident which occured during that hire began to come before my eyes. Their mode of behaviour came to my memory. Scenes of how goods worth lakhs of money were loaded without any serious thought  began flitting through my mind. 

I told my home-people whether I can go to that Negombo house and have a look and come. They got scared. I said that if I told this to police, I would be locked up. People in the village would say, 'there .. that fellow has helped the terrorists .. not being able to settle the debts'. I told home-people, 'Now there's nothing to do ... I'l tell police about this'. 

I went to Naiwala on April 25th. I heard sirs at the garment factory talking about the situation in the country with great shock. I went near them and said, 'Sir, I feel suspicious about that hire I undertook' and thus unravelled the whole story. What they said was , 'Shanthalal would have taken the stuff for sure'. Mr. Siriwardena who worked with Mr. Ranil was someone who had retired from service with Air Force after 22 years. He consulted a former commander of the Air Force and got instructions from him. After I went back home Mr. Siriwardena spoke to me and said that the intelligence unit would speak to me. Just then the Negombo intelligence service got in touch with me. An officer who asked for my nam and whereabouts without questioning me of any sort gave ear to my story for hours. Finally the officer said, 'Shanthalal, we have only five per cent of information. It is you who have ninety five per cent. You will be a national hero ... for saving lakhs of human lives, We were stuck in not being able to find any information. If not for your information these investigations would be buried in Negombo. By that time, intelligence sources had found that Hasthun who exploded the bomb at Katuwapitiya had come out from that house. 

After that the officer told me, 'You don't be frightened ... you have gone on a hire. Don't provide answers about this to anybody'. After a sort while I got a call from Amparai intelligence unit. They asked me the location where the stuff was unloaded. I could not explain the whereabouts as such. Though they went along the signs I directed them to, they could not find the way. They then told me, 'Putha you will have to come to Amparai. Promptly I consented. But by that time curfew was imposed. After that, to accompany me to Amparai an intelligence officer arrived at my home. From Nittambuwa we got into a Kalmuni bus. While on our way itself finance officials called me and asked me to deposit money of the lorry. We went to Kalmunai and after a short while the head of intelligence unit of Amparai area turned up. 'If what you say is true ... you will become a national hero who rescued the whole country from a disastrous calamity. Don't worry about anything', he said. 

Later I went with those intelligence officers in the jeep to search for the place where the goods were unloaded. It was not that easy as we thought. Subsequently instead of going in the jeep I went around with an officer on a bike. Across a clue of memory I somehow managed to find the Samanthurai house where the goods were initially unloaded. Later on the sly went in search of the second house. 

It was not difficult to trace the house in Nindavur. We went to the house in the jeep itself. From the vantage of the road itself we were able to spot a Batta van and a three-wheeler parked in the garden. But we did not go to the house. Now we have located both houses. We were now hoping to go to the in Sengal hamlet in Samanthurai. A large crowd of the army and police were present. I happened to be the guide. Under instructions of the chief of intelligence unit, everybody was following the jeep. They came close to the house concerned and they got down asking me to stay back in the jeep. In the meantime I spotted the girl who was there on the day the unloading was done. She was frolocking with the motor-cyclist who directed us that day. I told security forces also about it. But the girl said that she knew nothing. 'Don't tell lies ... it was I who brought stuff to this house and unloaded those'. Then the girl said that goods were unloaded for a shoe workshop of one Niyaz of Kaththankudy and that his sister gave the house on rent of two months at the rate of Rs. five thousand. 

Now there was security right round the house. An intelligence officer said to give a call to Niyaz as if sister is calling. Niyaz then said that he would come. But their mother has called Niyaz from the building materials shop in front of the house and reprimanded him saying, 'What have you brought ... there police have come ... you yourself come and see to it'. The officers realised that those people no idea about anything. Niyaz did not turn up. The security forces forced open the door and gained entry. When they saw what was inside, they looked at each other's faces. It was in that house that IS flags and and everything was found. That place was supposed to be their armoury. Drone cameras, laptops ... there was hardly anything that was not there. Intelligence officers said that it was from that laptop that their whole network was exposed. The officers embraced me. 

From there the Nindavur house where the stock of goods were unloaded the second time was 6 kilometres. We promptly went there. A woman who was there at the time of unloading was present. I identified her. Earlier though she replied in the negative, she later admitted that it was given on rent for two months at the rate of Rs. 24000. She said that some children and the people rushed in a van in a hurry a short while ago. Even those who rented out the house concerned knew hardly anything. There were explosives even in that house. This house also was utilised as a place of protection. 

In the same way, white cloth, SIM cards, birth certificates of children and such things were in that house. After installing security there too, I was escorted and brought to the original place. Then darkness began to envelope the area. No end of praise for me. They called my wife and said, 'You should have done a lot of merit to become a wife of a husband like this'. 

I then got ready to proceed to the Nindavur house from Samanthurai first house once again with the row of jeeps with high-ranking officers. When we reached that house it was about 7.30 . After a short while a high officer got a call to the effect that an exchange of gunfire is taking place in Kalmunai ... bombs are being thrown about. That was the Saindamardu explosion. I was stationed inside the jeep and after issuing instructions to officers of intelligence to look after me, all others proceeded to that spot.That night I spent my time in a house of a security officer. 

The following day we went to the spot where the explosion happened in Saindamardu and identified those who died. It was the person who went on the motor bike in my company to unload the stuff who was dead with a gun in hand and that was in front of the gate. Later it was revealed that he was Niyaz. From there onwards I was escorted to the Nindavur house once again for various identification purposes".

It was Hasthun who made the explosion at Katuwapitiya church who had escorted Shanthalal during the hire from near Negombo hospital to Katuwapitiya. At the time goods were loaded from the Katuwapitiya house, a group of females who were suicide bombers of Saindamardu too had been at a front floor there. It was Zaharan's brother Rilwan who had loaded the stuff with him into the lorry and it was this Rilwan who had undertaken the responsibility of launching of the second series of attacks. At the time Shanthalal went inside the house the stout person who was having a chat while seated on the floor was Zaharan. The person who came with him to Kalmunai in the lorry is presently in police custody. He in fact is Zaharan's bomb expert, Mohommed Rizkhan. It was Mohommed Niyaz who had accompanied them from near Kalmunai mosque to Samanthurai and Nindavur houses who was ultimately found among the crowd who exploded bombs in Saindamardu and found dead with a weapon in his hands. When Shantha and the others were on their way in search of the Nindavur house, the Saindamardu crowd of suicide bombers were in that house. 

Shantha who made such a revelation was awaiting a number of months for his heroic effort till he was subjected to appreciation. In the end, having nothing more to do he came before the media and exposed his story. It was after that whoever it is who remembered Shantha. Now of course he has received the appreciation due to him. 

Note - Amila Malawisuriya

Photographs - Samantha Weerasiri