Boy who kicked unidentified object injured

By Shane Seneviratne   

A 16 year old school boy who had kicked an unidentified object similar to a golf ball lying on a road at Ullandupitiya in Aladeniiya, received serious injuries when it exploded. He was admitted to the Kandy National Hospital where he was scheduled to undergo urgent surgery. A spokesman for the hospital said a lower limb of the boy had been seriously injured.  

During investigations the police , after identifying the object as an illegal improvised explosive device popularly known as “Hakka Patas used by poachers to kill wild animals, they had searched a nearby house on suspicion to find nine “Hakka Patas devices.  

 Police arrested two suspects including an army deserter in connection with the incident. Investigations revealed that the suspects had turned out these illegal explosive devices to kill wild boar and laid them in jungle tracks at night which they collected then the following morning, if unexploded.  They said the one that exploded when the schoolboy kicked it may have drifted onto the road with storm water.   

A police team under OIC Crime Investigation Branch IP Bandara is conducting further investigations on the instructions of OIC Aladeniya Police CI Gamini Senaratne.