The Indian passenger injured in Wednesday's aborted take-off of a SriLankan Airlines plane in Colombo is Kattula Sammaiah, 28, a former People's War Group (PWG) militant who surrendered to police in 1994, it was disclosed yesterday.

The SriLankan Airlines' Airbus A-330 with 145 passengers on board made an emergency evacuation after smoke appeared in the cabin moments before take-off. A German, an Indian and two Sri Lankans were taken to hospital for treatment for the injuries suffered while using emergency chutes to get out of the aircraft.

Sammaiah was a member of a hit-squad that killed a Deputy Inspector General of Police who was jogging inside a cricket stadium in the Andhra Pradesh capital in 1993. Sammaiah later developed differences with his squad commander and shot him dead along with two other militants.

After his surrender Sammaiah, who hails from Kachapur village in Karimnagar district, himself became a target of the outlawed PWG which accused him of helping the police to identify and kill Naxalites in Karimnagar district.

The PWG made one known attempt to eliminate him in April 2000 by planting a landmine outside his new home in Kukatpally near Hyderabad. Sammaiah who was heading for Frankfurt via Colombo, became a police informer and received financial support and protection from the police.

Pampered by his police handlers, the renegade Naxalite went out of control and began to extort large amounts of money by "settling" property disputes. Sammaiah even held a media conference last year vowing to eliminate PWG commanders.

Top police officers recently planned to send some former militants to take up jobs in Gulf countries but Sammaiah – in critical condition in a Colombo hospital – chose Frankfurt where he wanted to start a business and was going there reportedly accompanied by a son of a senior police officer.