15 of 17 suspects of AAU grenade attack apprehended

Addis Ababa, May 18(ENA)-- Fifteen of the 17 suspects of the grenade attack targeting students who were watching TV at dormitory block 502 in the Sidis Kilo Campus of the Addis Ababa University have been apprehended, the Federal Police Commission said.

Mecha and Tulema, an organization alleged to have a link with the clandestine terrorist OLF, has been providing money and materials for some of the AAU students, suspended earlier for involvements in violence, to commit the terrorist act such as that of the grenade attack perpetrated at around 7:10 PM on April 29, the Commission told ENA in a statement on Tuesday.

The detained include those who mastermined the grenade attack and those who threw the bomb at students watching TV. Police reports released in the immediate aftermath of the attack indicates that one student was killed and nine others injured in the attack.

Police investigations have proved that the recent attrocities that killed students including children indiscriminately and damaged public property in grenade attacks at the AAU, Woliso, Ambo and Bushoftu were masterminded by OLF with support from the government in Asmara, the statement said.

The grenade attacks were being committed after OLF's attempts of disrupting the teaching-learning process by wreacking havoc, had met with strong objections as expressed by the entire students and the public at large.

The Mecha and Tulema provided grenades and other arms as well as money to the perpetrators who include members of the so-called Oromo Youths Revolutionary Legue organized under the terrorist OLF who had been suspended earlier for violence as well as those students of the Commerial College who had received academic dismissals, the statement said.

It said, the apprehended individuals had received orders to perpetrate similar attacks and to kill senior university officials and students at the Tikur Anbessa Medicine Faculty, Arat Kilo and Sidist Kilo Campuses as well as the Commerical College.

Except the grenade attack at block 502 of the Sidist Kilo Campus, all the other plans of attrocities failed, the statement said.

OLF, whose agenda were rejected by the entire students, has opted to such desperate moves, the statement said.

The statement said suspects who go by the names Legesse Abetu and Teshale Tesfaye are still at large as the police continue manhunt to seize and bring them to justice.

The statement calls on the public to provide tip offs to the police as to the whereabouts of the forenamed suspects whose photographs have been made available.

Anyone who want to provide tip offs can dial 52-63-02, 52-63-03, 56-83-11 at the federal police information desk, the statement noted.