Sergeant Yakandawala Liyanarachchige Chaminda Ruwan Yakandawala was a

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

n soldier. A member of the Sri Lanka Army Military Police he was selected to serve in the Security Division of the Commander of the

Sri Lanka Army The Sri Lanka Army (; ) is the oldest and largest of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces. The army was officially established as the Ceylon Army in 1949, though the army traces its roots back in 1881 when Ceylon Light Infantry Volunteers was created; ...

Sarath Fonseka Field Marshal Gardihewa Sarath Chandralal Fonseka (born 18 December 1950) is a Sri Lankan retired army officer. He was the eighteenth Commander of the Sri Lankan Army from 2005 to 2009, and under his command the Sri Lankan Army ended the 26- ...

. On April 25, 2006, he blocked the path of a

Tamil Tiger The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; , ; also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a Tamil militant organization, that was based in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam ...

suicide bomber A suicide attack (also known by a wide variety of other names, see below) is a deliberate attack in which the perpetrators knowingly sacrifice their own lives as part of the attack. These attacks are a form of murder–suicide that is ofte ...

tasked with assassinating Fonseka. Unable to proceed, the suicide bomber detonated the explosives strapped around her waist, killing Yakandawala and eight others in the process. Yakandawala's quick actions however saved the life of Sarath Fonseka, who would go on to play a crucial role in the ultimate defeat of the Tamil Tigers and the ending of the Sri Lankan Civil War.

Background

Yakandawala Liyanarachchige Chaminda Ruwan Yakandawala was born in the village of Watawala on November 23, 1971, the third of four children. He attended Ginigathena Madhya Maha Vidyalaya until his

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examinations, after which he applied to join both the

and the

Sri Lanka Police Sri Lanka Police (; ) is the civilian national police force of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. The police force is responsible for enforcing criminal and traffic law, enhancing public safety, maintaining order and keeping the p ...

. Selected to both services, he decided to join the Sri Lanka Army, and enlisted in October 1991. He trained at the Army engineering school in

Embilipitiya Embilipitiya is a town, governed by an urban council, in Ratnapura District, Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka. Overview In the 1970s it was a small town with two or three small boutiques. Under the Udawalawe development project, Embilipitiya gr ...

and Panagoda, after which he was mobilized as a military policeman. He was also a boxer for the Army. In 1994, Yakandawala married Nishanthi Kumburegama, who was a physical training instructor with the Sri Lanka Army Women's Corps. They had three children together.

Military career

Promoted to the rank of

Lance Corporal Lance corporal is a military rank, used by many English-speaking armed forces worldwide, and also by some police forces and other uniformed organisations. It is below the rank of corporal. Etymology The presumed origin of the rank of lance corp ...

in January 1993, Yakandawala served in the army during the Rivirasa operation in 1995, and was awarded a medal for his bravery on the battlefield. He was subsequently selected to serve in the Security Division of the Commander of the Army. After undergoing training as a motor-cycle VIP escort, he joined the riding team of the Army Commander's escort in May 1996. Yakandawala provided security to three Army Commanders beginning with Rohan Daluwatte. He was promoted to

Corporal Corporal is a military rank in use by the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. The rank is usually the lowest ranking non-commissioned officer. In some militaries, the rank of corporal nominally corr ...

in January 2001.

Suicide attack

On April 25, 2006, the Commander of the Sri Lanka Army Lt. General Sarath Fonseka was leaving the Sri Lanka Army Headquarters around 1.30 pm. Yakandawala was one of the outriders providing security to Fonseka. A

suicide bomber later identified as Kanapathipillai Manjula Devi gained entrance into the Army headquarters compound by pretending to be a pregnant woman attending the maternity clinic at the Army Hospital, which was located inside the Headquarters compound. Dressed in a blue shalvari suit with a suicide belt containing large razor balls and more than a kilogram of C-4 strapped around her waist, she waited outside for Fonseka to leave his office. As Fonseka's car approached, Devi ran towards it. Noticing the danger, Yakandawala yelled at her to move away. As she continued running toward the vehicle, Yakandawala kicked out at her, knocking her to the ground. Devi then detonated the explosives strapped on to her.

Aftermath

Nine people were killed in the explosion, including Yakandawala, who had razor balls pierce his neck, destroying his

trachea The trachea (: tracheae or tracheas), also known as the windpipe, is a cartilaginous tube that connects the larynx to the bronchi of the lungs, allowing the passage of air, and so is present in almost all animals' lungs. The trachea extends from ...

. Corporal Priyanjan Viraj, who was on the same bike at Yakandawala was also killed in the explosion. Fonseka suffered serious abdominal injuries in the attack, but his life was saved following emergency surgery at the Colombo National Hospital. He regained consciousness on April 30. After recovered from his injuries, Fonseka resumed duties as Commander of the Army on July 31, 2006. He then led the Sri Lanka Army on a three-year-long campaign to defeat the Tamil Tigers and end the decades long Sri Lankan Civil War. Under Fonseka, the Sri Lanka Army achieved its goal in May 2009, wiping out the Tamil Tigers and killing all major leaders of the organization, thereby ending the Sri Lankan Civil War.

References

External links