2ND LEAD

Maheswaran MP assassinated in Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 January 2008, 04:37 GMT]
Colombo district Tamil parliamentarian of the opposition United National Party, T. Maheswaran, was shot at Ponnambala Va'neasvarar temple at Kochchikkadai in Colombo Tuesday around 10:00 a.m., while he was paying homage at the shrine, and succumbed to his injuries at Colombo hospital. The shooting, which also claimed the live of his bodyguard, comes a few hours after the parliamentarian had said that he would reveal details on how abductions and killings in Jaffna are managed by the Sri Lankan establishment through the EPDP paramilitary, from Colombo. Eleven days ago, the government of Sri Lanka had reduced the Ministerial Security Division guards provided to the MP from Eighteen to two.

12 devotees were wounded when gunmen shot at the parliamentarian who was attending the New Year prayers at the popular Siva temple in Colombo.

Mr. Thiyagarajah Maheswaran who was a former Hindu Affairs minister and an ex-MP for Jaffna, escaped an assassination attempt on the final day of the 2004 election campaign in Colombo.

Recently, on 21 December, a UNP candidate, Muthukumar Sivapalan, was shot and killed in Jaffna, allegedly by the EPDP.

The paramilitary-cum-political party, EPDP, is led by Douglas Devananda, a cabinet minister in the present Sri Lanka government.

Maheswaran was highly critical about the paramilitary outfit in his latest interviews to Tamil media in Colombo and had claimed that he would reveal details on how the terror campaign in Jaffna was being managed from Colombo by the Government of Sri Lanka through the EPDP.

He had told Shakti TV's popular Minnal program that he would come up with in-depth details of the terror campaign when the parliament resumes its sittings on January 08.

Another Tamil parliamentarian in Colombo, Mano Ganesan, the leader of the Western Province Peoples Front (WPPF) and the convener of the Civil Monitoring Committee, whose security was also slashed by the GoSL, has recently said he was left with no other option than leaving Sri Lanka as the lives of Tamil parliamentarians have been endangered by the reduction of security provided to them.

Two years ago, a senior Tamil politician and the Tamil National Alliance Member of Parliament, Joseph Pararajasingham, was shot and killed at St. Mary's co-cathedral church in Batticaloa city, while attending Christmas prayers on the night of Christmas eve.

An year ago, a lawyer turned politician and former mayor of Jaffna, Nadarajah Raviraj, the Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP, was assassinated in Colombo on November 10, 2006.

Chronology:


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