M A I N   N E W S

Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister assassinated

Colombo, August 12
Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was shot dead tonight.

Kadirgamar, who had some 100 elite bodyguards to protect him, was returning to his private residence by car when a suspected sniper shot him on the head at Buller’s Road, Colombo.

“He was rushed to the National Hospital,” hospital spokeswoman Pushpa Soysa said.

“He died about 70 minutes after he was brought here. Doctors did all they could to try and revive him, but they failed.”

Though it was not clear who was behind the fatal shooting, Kadirgamar, a Tamil Christian, had often publicly said that he was a potential target of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The minister, who had held the post between 1994 and 2001 also, had claimed credit for getting the separatist Tigers outlawed in several other countries, including in the US and Britain.

Kadirgamar, born on April 12, 1932, was appointed Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka in April 2004 by Kumaratunga.

He was a long-time supporter of Kumaratunga’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

“I’ve been told that he has already passed away,” the government source said on condition of anonymity. Police sources said Kadirgamar was believed to have been shot twice in the head, once in the throat and once in the body.

Mr Kadirgamar,73, a veteran politician and a close confidante of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, underwent emergency surgery in the National Hospital, where he was rushed to with head injuries.

The Minister was shot at near his tightly-guarded home in the capital, according to the police.

Doctors at the National Hospital said he suffered a head injury and was in critical condition.

Three doctors carried out the emergency surgery.

The Foreign Minister was shot between 10 pm and 11 pm and succumbed to his wounds at 12:15 a.m.

Reports said he was shot by a sniper from a long distance at his highly guarded residence at Wijerama Mawatte near London Place, Colombo.

Sri Lankan armed forces have launched a helicopter search for assailants, Police said.

All roads in the area have been blocked by the armed forces.

A ceasefire between the government and the Tamil Tigers has been in place on the island since 2002, but there have been recent fears that it was in danger of unravelling.

The shooting comes amid escalating tensions between the government and the Tamil Tigers rebels, who have repeatedly threatened to resume a two-decade civil war because of a rash of violence in the island's restive east that each side blames on the other.

"The Foreign Minister was shot. He was being treated in intensive care," said Constable H.A. Hemapala, attached to the police unit at the National Hospital in Colombo.

Military and government sources confirmed the shooting. — Reuters, PTI