Quicktakes

32 killed in Lanka blast

COLOMBO: At least 32 people, including three school children and two policemen, were killed and 250 injured when a bomb-laden vehicle driven by an LTTE suicide bomber exploded near a busy suburban railway station causing widespread devastation and damage, police said. Earlier reports had put the death toll at 35. An official press release, however, said 30 people including two policemen died in the blast, but did not mention the fate of the driver of the vehicle.

Ahsan "paralysed"

KARACHI: Kunwar Ahsan, a Mohajir from Karachi, who was shot at by the father of the girl he secretly married on Wednesday was recovering in hospital but may be left paralysed. A doctor at the hospital where Ahsan is under treatment said preparations were under way to perform surgery to remove a bullet still embedded in his chest. It was feared the bullet had damaged his spinal chord which could lead to the paralysis of the lower part of his body.