Sri Lanka police have detained two people in connection with the assassination attempt on Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the younger brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and secretary of the defense ministry, a local official newspaper said Sunday.

According to the Sunday Observer, the Criminal Investigations Department on Saturday arrested two men who had owned the three wheeler used in Friday's suicide bombing against the defense secretary's convoy in the capital Colombo.

"We have tracked down the owner of the vehicle used in the bombing," the newspaper quoted a police official as saying. "They were being questioned."

Forensic experts have suggested that the three wheeler had been fitted with eight to ten kg of plastic explosives and packed with ball bearings, said the newspaper.

The defense secretary's bodyguards noticed an "unusual movement " of the three wheeler coming from the opposite direction and acted to block its path.

This caused the explosive-laden three wheeler to explode before it reached the target, the newspaper said.

Two soldiers of the escort were killed in the explosion while another 13 people including nine soldiers were wounded.

The body of the suicide bomber, with the head destroyed beyond recognition was found in the back of a nearby pick-up truck.

Source: Xinhua