Wounded ex-TNA MP dies

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 February 2005, 05:07 GMT]
Mr. Ariyanayagam Chandra Nehru, ex-Tamil National Alliance MP for Amparai district, succumbed to his wounds Tuesday morning in Colombo. He was seriously injured when gunmen suspected to be working with the Sri Lanka army shot dead senior Liberation Tigers official, Mr. E. Kousalyan and three members of the LTTE who were traveling with Mr. Nehru in his van to Batticaloa Monday night. Mr. Nehru was elected to Parliament at the general elections in December 2001. Mr. Nehru is the eldest son of one of the most senior leaders of the Tamil rights movement on the east coast, Mr. Arappor Ariyanayagam.

He worked as a captain on international merchant ships for many years before retiring to Thirukkovil, his ancestral village, 76 kilometres south of Batticaloa.

Mr. Ariyanayagam Chandra Nehru

Although he lost his seat by a narrow margin to another TNA candidate at the general election in April 2004, he continued to work as a rights activist in the remote Tamil villages on Sri Lanka’s southeast coast.

Mr. Chandra Nehru was a member of the the inaugural NESOHR board.

Meanwhile, LTTE officials from Batticaloa are at the Polannaruwa base hospital to take over the bodies of Mr. Kousalyan and three of their colleagues who were killed near Welikanda near the Polannaruwa – Batticaloa district border.