Two children were killed and several members of their family injured when a hand grenade was thrown at a house on Sirisangabo Road, Kawdana, Dehiwala, in the early hours of Friday morning, police said.

Ada Derana and the Daily Mirror both report that the dead were brothers aged 10 and 14. A hospital spokesperson said the 10-year-old died on admission to Kalubowila Teaching Hospital and his 14-year-old brother died while receiving treatment.

Their 52-year-old father and two other children were seriously injured in the explosion and taken to the same hospital. The father remains under treatment.

NewsFirst gives different particulars for the same attack, putting the children’s ages at 11 and 17 and the father’s at 55, and reporting the father as the only other casualty. It is alone in timing the attack at about 3:20 a.m. and in describing the street as Sirisangabo Mawatha rather than Sirisangabo Road. Two of the three newsrooms agree on the younger ages and on the additional injured children; none explains the divergence.

Motive

Police Media Spokesperson Assistant Superintendent F. U. Wootler told NewsFirst the attack is suspected to be the result of an ongoing clash between two organised crime groups. Ada Derana and the Daily Mirror both state that the circumstances have yet to be established, and neither repeats the organised-crime attribution. Police say investigations are continuing.

A second grenade in two days

The attack follows a grenade thrown at a house on Wimalasiri Mawatha, Kohuwala on Thursday — about two kilometres away, in the same Dehiwala–Mount Lavinia police area — which ASP Wootler also attributed to a feud between rival criminal factions. No injuries were reported there.

The suburb has seen a run of organised-crime violence: the brother-in-law of a figure known as ‘Kos Malli’ was hacked to death at Oban Place, Dehiwala on 7 September. Police reported last week that Sri Lanka had recorded 34 underworld shootings this year, 17 of them fatal.

Update (September 11): police say the attackers hit the wrong house

A police probe has found the grenade was thrown at the wrong house, the Daily Mirror reported later on Friday morning.

According to preliminary investigations, the attackers had intended to target a neighbouring residence reportedly linked to a drug distributor associated with the organised-crime figure “Badowita Asanka.” The grenade was instead thrown at the adjacent house, killing the two children inside.

Police believe the attack was retaliation in a continuing feud between rival groups associated with “Badowita Asanka” and “Kos Malli,” the Daily Mirror said. Hiru News reported that police have assigned three teams to the investigation and confirmed the attribution to a clash between organised crime gangs, without naming either faction.

That places the attack in the same feud as the killing of ‘Kos Malli’s’ brother-in-law at Oban Place, Dehiwala on 7 September, though no outlet makes that link explicitly.

The Daily Mirror’s update repeats NewsFirst’s particulars — ages 11 and 17, a 55-year-old father, the 3.20 a.m. timing and Sirisangabo Mawatha — rather than the younger ages given by Ada Derana and its own earlier report. The divergence remains unexplained. Hiru News describes the dead only as “two school students” and says the father was hospitalised and the bodies are at the Kalubowila Hospital mortuary.

The attackers knocked on the door first

A fuller NewsFirst account published at 12.46pm answers the question every earlier report left open — how the grenade was delivered.

A group of unidentified men arrived at the house and knocked on the door. After the occupants opened it, the attackers threw the hand grenade and fled, NewsFirst reported, citing police. That detail makes the mistaken address harder to explain: the attackers waited for someone to answer before throwing.

ASP Wootler is quoted directly in that report confirming the wrong-target finding — investigators believe the intended target was the home of a man allegedly involved in narcotics distribution and linked to “Badovita Asanka” (NewsFirst’s spelling; the Daily Mirror writes “Badowita”), and that the attack is tied to the feud between his faction and a rival group led by “Kos Malli.”

The family

Neighbours ran to the house after hearing the father screaming, NewsFirst reported, quoting one of them. It is the first account to identify anyone in the household: the father is named as Nalin, described by the neighbour as a three-wheeler driver in the area.

“We ran to the house after hearing him screaming and crying. When we asked what had happened, we were told that Nalin’s two children had died,” the neighbour said, putting the time at about 3.20 or 3.30 in the morning. “He is a very innocent man who drives a three-wheeler around this area. He never causes trouble for anyone. Those two children were also very innocent. That family struggled every day just to make ends meet.”

This report gives the ages as 11 and 17 and the father’s as 55, and — like the earlier NewsFirst piece — mentions no injured children beyond the two who died.

Update: police say the masterminds have been identified and have fled abroad

Senior DIG for the Western Province Sanjeewa Medawatte says police have identified the people directing crime in Dehiwala, Mount Lavinia and surrounding areas, and that steps are being taken to bring back those who have fled the country, Hiru News reported. He was speaking to reporters after an event in Moratuwa.

On the grenade attack itself, Hiru reports police suspect it was carried out on the instructions of “Kos Malli.” That is a firmer attribution than earlier accounts, which placed the attack inside the Badowita Asanka–Kos Malli feud without saying which side ordered it.

Hiru also restates the wrong-house finding with one detail no earlier report carried: it is the injured man’s brother who is connected to the Badowita Asanka drug network, and the target house had been changed, so the grenade was thrown at the brother’s home next door. The injured man himself, Hiru says, has no criminal charges against him.

A caution on the dates. Hiru filed the report on 12 September and dates the briefing to “today (11),” while placing the attack “yesterday early morning” — which would put it on 10 September. The attack is settled as the early hours of Friday 11 September across Ada Derana, the Daily Mirror and NewsFirst. Hiru’s relative time words do not hold; the date of the SDIG’s briefing cannot be fixed from its account.

Update (September 13): the children are named, and the UN calls for justice

Hiru News named the two dead boys on Sunday for the first time in any report: Dumidu Gihan, 11, and Kasun Rashmika, 17. Both were students of Dehiwala Shastrananda Vidyalaya. Their father, 55, suffered serious injuries to his legs, remains in hospital and is still under treatment.

United Nations Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka Marc-André Franche posted on his official X account that he was deeply shocked by the attack, said no child should ever be the victim of such violence, and stated that those responsible must face justice before the law. He conveyed condolences to the family.

Three details in the Hiru report matter beyond the statement:

The age divergence has now broken 3–2. Hiru gives the ages as 11 and 17 and the father’s as 55 — the same particulars as NewsFirst and the Daily Mirror’s later update, against the 10, 14 and 52 reported by Ada Derana and the Daily Mirror’s first filing. The naming of the boys makes the older set the better-supported one, though no outlet has corrected itself or explained the divergence.

Only three people were admitted. Hiru says “the severely injured father and his two sons” were taken to Kalubowila Hospital. That matches NewsFirst’s account of the father as the only other casualty and tells against the two additional injured children reported by Ada Derana and the Daily Mirror. The two surviving injured children reported on Friday may not exist.

CCTV shows one attacker, not a group. Hiru says the attack was captured on CCTV, showing an individual arriving in a three-wheeler, throwing the grenade and fleeing. That conflicts with NewsFirst’s police-sourced account of a group of men who knocked on the door and waited for it to be opened. A single attacker arriving by three-wheeler and a group that knocks first are not the same event, and no outlet has reconciled them. Neither the footage nor its source has been described further.

Hiru’s relative dating holds this time — it places the attack “early the day before yesterday,” which from a 13 September filing gives 11 September, the settled date. That is the opposite of its 12 September report, where the same phrasing pointed to the wrong day.

Update (September 14): two arrested, including the man who supplied the three-wheeler

Police have arrested two suspects over the attack, Hiru News and the Daily Mirror both reported on Monday — the first arrests since the grenade was thrown.

One of the two is the person who provided the three-wheeler used by those who carried out the attack, Hiru says. Neither outlet names either suspect, gives their ages, or says where or when they were detained.

This settles the vehicle question and points one way on the contradiction. The two competing accounts of the attack were Hiru’s CCTV description of a single man arriving by three-wheeler, and NewsFirst’s police-sourced account of a group of men who knocked on the door and waited for it to be opened. An arrest specifically of the three-wheeler’s supplier confirms a three-wheeler was used, which the CCTV account had and the NewsFirst account did not mention.

The Daily Mirror’s latest report also describes the grenade as thrown by “an unidentified assailant” — singular — where its own earlier reporting and NewsFirst’s described a group. On the balance of accounts a lone attacker arriving by three-wheeler is now the better-supported version, though Hiru’s reference to “the suspects” who were given the vehicle is plural, and no outlet has reconciled that or withdrawn the earlier account.

The age divergence is now effectively settled. The Daily Mirror’s arrest report gives the dead brothers’ ages as 11 and 17 and the father’s as 55 — the same particulars as NewsFirst, Hiru and the paper’s own later filings, against the 10, 14 and 52 of Ada Derana and the Daily Mirror’s very first report. Four filings to two, and the two boys have since been named. It also confirms the attack date as 11 September.

Neither outlet says whether the two arrested are the attackers themselves or accessories, whether either is connected to the “Badowita Asanka” or “Kos Malli” factions, whether the man who actually threw the grenade is among them, or whether the suspects have been produced before a magistrate.

Update (September 15): police say the main suspect is in custody

The main suspect in the attack has been arrested, along with the driver of the three-wheeler used to travel to the scene, the Deputy Inspector General of Police for Colombo South said on Tuesday, Hiru News reported.

It is the first time any outlet has said the man police regard as principally responsible is in custody, and the first time an officer of DIG rank has been named as the source on the arrests. The DIG restated the wrong-address finding, describing the attack as a crime committed against the wrong location.

Whether these are new arrests is not clear from the reporting. On Monday, Hiru and the Daily Mirror both reported two arrests, one of them the man who provided the three-wheeler. Tuesday’s account gives two people again — the main suspect and the man who drove it. Providing a vehicle and driving it are different roles, but no outlet states a running total, names anyone, or says whether Tuesday’s two are the same pair described on Monday or a further two. The Daily Mirror’s video desk filed the story on Tuesday lunchtime under the headline “Two arrested over three-wheeler used in deadly attack” — the same framing it used on Monday, which points toward one set of arrests described twice rather than four people in custody. That is an inference, not a reconciliation: neither outlet makes it.

NewsFirst, which carried the fullest early reporting on the attack, has not filed on this development.

If the main suspect is the man who threw the grenade, his arrest would also bear on the unresolved question of how many attackers there were — the CCTV account described one man arriving by three-wheeler, the police account a group who knocked at the door. A main suspect arrested alongside a driver, with no other attacker mentioned, again fits the lone-attacker version. No outlet says what role the main suspect is alleged to have played.

Update (September 18): three in custody, and the main suspect is tied to a second killing

A third arrest has been made, and the suspect police regard as the attacker has been linked to a separate murder, NewsFirst reported on Friday.

The running total is now three. Police have arrested three suspects over the grenade attack — aged 39, 30 and 23, all residents of the Dehiwala area — detained in Ridimaliyadda, Dehiwala and Boralesgamuwa. This is the first report to give a figure that can be relied on as a total rather than a count of one day’s arrests, and the first to give any of the suspects’ ages. It resolves the Monday-versus-Tuesday ambiguity in favour of one set of arrests described twice: two on 14–15 September, plus one more. The arrest in Ridimaliyadda — in the Badulla district, roughly 200km from Colombo — indicates at least one suspect had left the Western Province.

The suspect is also named as a gunman in an earlier execution. The man arrested over the grenade attack has been identified as the gunman in a separate fatal shooting on Kandawala Road on 1 August, according to ongoing police investigations. Police said that killing was allegedly carried out on the instructions of an organised crime figure currently residing overseas.

That is the first time any report has connected the Dehiwala attacker to a specific prior killing, and it supports the Senior DIG’s 12 September statement that those directing crime in the Dehiwala–Mount Lavinia area had fled the country — though NewsFirst does not name the figure overseas or say whether he is “Kos Malli,” “Badowita Asanka” or a third party.

The 1 August shooting is already on our record, under a different place name. LankaNewz reported that killing as the fatal shooting of a 58-year-old three-wheeler driver on Kandawala Road, Ratmalana, where police said the victim was allegedly involved in drug trafficking and no arrests had been made. NewsFirst places the same road in Mount Lavinia; the Daily Mirror, Ada Derana and NewsFirst itself all called it Ratmalana in August. Kandawala Road runs through the Ratmalana–Mount Lavinia boundary area and both names have been used for it, so this reads as a naming difference rather than a second incident — but no outlet states that the two reports concern the same shooting.

If the identification holds, it makes the victim of the earlier killing an alleged drug trafficker and the intended target of the grenade attack the home of another — both inside the same feud, seven weeks apart, with the same man accused of carrying out both.

NewsFirst restates the settled elements: the attack was on 11 September, two young children died, their father was injured, the grenade was thrown at the wrong house, and the intended target was the residence of someone involved in drug trafficking with close links to an organised criminal gang.

Update (September 18): the three roles, the fee, and the escape route

Hiru News filed its own account of the third arrest on Friday, and it answers most of what NewsFirst left open. The 23-year-old — a resident of Bodhiya Vatta Road, Dehiwala — was detained on Thursday night near the bridge on the Bellanwila walking path by the Western Province South Crimes Division. He is alleged to have transported the grenade and driven the three-wheeler.

That settles the division of roles among the three in custody. Hiru states that the man who allegedly threw the grenade and the man who pointed out the house had both been arrested earlier, and that the 23-year-old was traced on information obtained from them. So the three arrests are: the thrower, the spotter, and the driver who carried the weapon. NewsFirst’s Friday filing gave three ages and three localities but did not say who did what.

It also names the overseas figures. Police say the suspect was paid Rs. 75,000 to move the grenade and drive, by the uncle of “Kalubowila Avishka”, acting on instructions from two organised-crime figures based overseas — “Kos Malli” and “Kalubowila Avishka.” NewsFirst had reported only that the linked 1 August killing was ordered by an unnamed figure abroad. “Kalubowila Avishka” is a new name in this thread, which has until now turned on the “Kos Malli”–“Badowita Asanka” feud; no outlet says whether he is a third party or an alias already in the file, and he should not be assumed to be the “Kudu Avishka” named in the Kohuwala grenade attack the day before.

The account also gives a sequence for the first time:

The escape route explains an anomaly in Friday’s earlier report. NewsFirst said one of the three was detained at Ridimaliyadda in the Badulla district, roughly 200km from Colombo, which read as unexplained. Bibile, on Hiru’s route, is in the neighbouring Monaragala district and about 30km from Ridimaliyadda. The two accounts fit together — though neither outlet makes the connection, and neither says which suspect was taken where.

Hiru adds that the 23-year-old had previously been remanded over possession of “Ice” (methamphetamine) and released on bail, and was due before the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court on Friday. That is the first time any outlet has reported a suspect in this case being produced in court.

Update — 26 September: two more arrested, three-wheeler recovered

Two further suspects were arrested on 25 September for aiding and abetting the attack, Hiru News reported. They are residents of Piliyandala and Kahathuduwa, aged 30 and 31, and were taken in the Dehiwala police division.

Hiru’s filing gives the date as “Thursday (25)”. The 25th of September 2026 was a Friday; the two do not agree. This site has used the day of the month, which is the more reliable half of a Sri Lankan dateline convention and is consistent with Hiru filing the report on the 26th. The weekday should be treated as unconfirmed.

The arrests followed information obtained while questioning suspects already in custody. Police also seized 11 grams and 960 milligrams of drugs and — significantly — the three-wheeler used in the attack, which answers a question left open since the first week of the investigation. The case is being handled by the Western Province South Crimes Division.

Two discrepancies in this filing. Hiru dates the earlier arrests of the main suspect and two accomplices to 17 September, across the Rideemaliyadda, Dehiwala and Boralesgamuwa police divisions, and says those three are in remand custody. Earlier reporting from Hiru itself, Daily Mirror and NewsFirst placed arrests on 14, 15 and 18 September; no outlet previously reported a 17 September date. Hiru also renders the Badulla-district location as “Rideemaliyadda”, where NewsFirst wrote “Ridimaliyadda”.

Hiru’s summary of the attack also describes it as killing two students and severely injuring their father, omitting the two other children reported injured on 11 September.

Update — 26 September: detention orders, and the road the grenade travelled

Seven-day detention orders have been obtained for the two suspects arrested for aiding and abetting the attack, Hiru News reported on Saturday evening. This is the first time detention orders have been reported in the case.

Their roles are now given. Police say the pair are the man who transported the grenade and the man who accompanied him in a three-wheeler. Neither is named, and no ages are given — but the Piliyandala address reported at the time of their arrest fits the route below.

The grenade came from Galle. Police say the man who brought the weapon had been in close contact with the organised-crime figure “Kalubowila Avishka” since their school days, and that the two were involved in drug trafficking together. On Avishka’s instructions, the suspect travelled to Galle and stayed at an inn, where a third person handed him the grenade. He moved along Galle Road to Ratmalana, took a rented room, and then both suspects went to an inn at Piliyandala. From there they showed the grenade to Avishka over a video call. The weapon was then hidden near a luxury store in Kalubowila, where the primary suspect collected it and carried out the attack.

Two things this changes. The video call is the first reported direct communication evidence between a suspect and an overseas handler in this case. And Avishka moves from a name on an instruction chain to a man personally linked to one suspect since childhood — which, if it holds, gives the “Kalubowila Avishka” thread an origin that the Rs. 75,000 payment reported on 18 September did not.

But it conflicts with Hiru’s own 18 September account, and the outlet does not acknowledge it. On 18 September Hiru reported that the 23-year-old arrested at Bellanwila had transported the grenade and driven the three-wheeler, retrieving it from near a supermarket in Pepiliyana on the night of 10 September and handing it to the thrower. Saturday’s filing assigns the transport role to a different, newly arrested man, routes the weapon through Galle, Ratmalana and Piliyandala, and has it cached near a luxury store in Kalubowila — from which the attacker collected it himself.

Both accounts may describe different legs of one chain, with the newly arrested pair moving the grenade from Galle to the Kalubowila cache and the 23-year-old handling it after that. Hiru does not say so, and the two cache locations — Pepiliyana and Kalubowila — are not the same place. Until police reconcile them, the custody chain of the weapon should be treated as unsettled.

Hiru also does not say which suspect is “the primary suspect” who collected the grenade, whether he is the 23-year-old or the man arrested earlier as the thrower, who handed over the grenade at the Galle inn or whether that person has been traced, or before which court the detention orders were obtained.

Still not reported

Hiru’s account does not name any of the three suspects, give the ages of the other two, or say what happened at the Mount Lavinia hearing. It does not say which country “Kos Malli” and “Kalubowila Avishka” are in, whether extradition or Interpol notices have been sought, or how the uncle who allegedly paid the Rs. 75,000 has been dealt with — he is described as a participant but is not among the three arrested.

NewsFirst does not say whether any suspect has been produced before a magistrate, or confirm which of the three is the alleged gunman — a point Hiru answers by role rather than by name. It does not say whether the 1 August identification rests on CCTV, ballistics, a confession or witness evidence, or confirm that the Kandawala Road shooting it describes is the one reported in August as being in Ratmalana.

No outlet gives the family’s surname or says who occupied the house that was hit. None names the drug distributor said to live next door or the brother now identified as the link, or says whether the intended target’s household was warned or is under protection. None names the two people arrested or states their role in the attack. None reconciles the conflicting casualty count, or squarely resolves the conflict between the CCTV account of a lone attacker on a three-wheeler and the police account of a group at the door, though the arrests point toward the former. None says whether the CCTV footage identified the suspects or whether it has been released.

On the SDIG’s statement, no outlet says how many people have been identified as masterminds, which countries they have fled to, whether extradition or Interpol notices have been sought, or whether “Kos Malli” and “Badowita Asanka” are among them.

Sources