Maheswaran MP shot and killed 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 while he was paying homage at the shrine and succumbed to his injuries at Colombo hospital. Government of Sri Lanka had reduced the Ministerial Security Division (MSD) guards provided to the MP from from Eighteen to two eleven days ago. The shooting, which also injured two others, comes a few hours after the MP had claimed that he would reveal in-depth details of how abductions and killings in Jaffna are managed by the Sri Lankan military establishment through the EPDP paramilitary from Colombo.
The MP was also shot on the final day of the 2004 election campaign in Colombo.
A UNP candidate, Muthukumar Sivapalan, was shot and killed in Jaffna on 21 December, 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 outfit in his latest interview and said he would reveal how the paramilitary campaign was being managed in Jaffna from Colombo.
He had told Shakti TV's popular Minnal program that he would come up with in-depth details when the parliament meets on 08 January.