Jan 06, Colombo: The Sri Lankan government has decided to display the wreckage of a passenger airplane that was shot down by the Tamil Tiger terrorist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) 16 years ago.

Sri Lanka Navy exhumed the debris of the plane with the support of police. The Navy recovered 72 pieces of the plane and they are to be displayed to the public on 11th and 12th January at the Jaffna Public Grounds.

Wreckage of Lion Air Antonov An-24RV which crashed into the sea off the north-western coast after a LTTE missile attack in 1988 was recovered last year on the information provided by a Tamil Tiger cadre who fired the missile to shoot down the plane.

The ill-fated Lion Air flight 602 from Palaly to Ratmalana carrying 48 mostly Tamil civilians and 8 crew including two Ukrainian pilots went missing on September 29, 1998 over the Iranativu Island.

The display aims to remind the brutality of LTTE against its own people.