Sri Lankan police said on Saturday that they have quizzed around 25 people for the failed assassination attempt on the country's top defense official who is also the younger brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Sarath Lugoda, the senior superintendent of police in Colombo Crime Division of the Police said that none of them have been quizzed for any direct involvement but were quizzed in the preliminary stage of the investigation.

Gotabhaya Rajapakse, the defense secretary survived the Tamil Tiger suicide bomb assassination attempt on Friday at central Colombo's Green Path area which killed three people and caused injuries to 13 others.

Rajapakse is heading the government's current military thrust against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels.

The LTTE suicide bomber had driven a three wheeler taxi carrying some 10 kg of high explosives into the motorcade carrying the defense secretary.

The investigators said the target could not be achieved due to the bullet proof BMW car that Rajapakse traveled.

The Sri Lankan president's brother is a retired colonel in the Sri Lanka Army and had battled the Tiger rebels in the armed campaign in the 1990s.

This was the second failed assassination attempt by the Tigers in Colombo ever since the violence escalated at the end of 2005.

Army Commander Sarath Fonseka also survived a suicide assassination attempt in April.

The failed attempt on the defense secretary has raised fears of renewed violence in the island's conflict despite international efforts to broker a negotiated settlement.

Source: Xinhua