Sri Lanka's president, injured in an assassination attempt at the weekend, has been discharged from hospital. "Fate has given me a new lease of life," said a glum Mrs Kumaratunga, her face swollen and partly bandaged, on national television last night. "To carry it forward, I need your co-operation. Go to the polling booth . . . and give me your support."
The Sri Lankan authorities say there could be further violence as the island votes in presidential elections today. The president has blamed Tamil Tiger separatists for carrying out Saturday's twin bomb attacks which left 33 dead and 150 injured.
Fighting between Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan army in the north of the island during the past 10 days has claimed the lives of 146 soldiers, an army spokesman said yesterday. More than 1,000 Tamil Tigers had been killed or wounded in that time, he added.
Security around the president's Temple Trees residence has been stepped up since her return. Extra members of the 1,500 strong Presidential Security Division (PSD) have been deployed to guard her following Saturday's explosion at a rally of the ruling People's Alliance. Another blast occurred at an opposition rally on the same evening.
Sri Lankan newspapers yesterday published pictures of the severed head of the woman believed to have been the suicide bomber at the president's rally. The weekend bomb attacks have focussed attention on the main issue of today's election: the war in the north.
Mrs Kumaratunga has pursued a dual policy of trying to defeat the Tigers militarily while at the same time seeking a constitutional settlement to the conflict. The Tamil Tigers - as was demonstrated by Saturday's bombings - are impressed with neither the strategy of the president nor that of the main opposition leader.