Saturday, August 13, 2005
Lankan Foreign Minister Kadirgamar shot dead
PK Balachandran
Colombo, August 12, 2005
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was shot dead by a terrorist sniper in Colombo on Friday night.
A National Hospital official said that the minister was pronounced dead at 12.15 am on Saturday.
The minister was in his swimming pool between 10 pm and 11 pm on Friday when the sniper, a crackshot, got him. He was apparently hit in the head and chest.
Kadirgamar was rushed to the National Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery to no avail.
The incident took place at Kadirgamar's private residence in the high security Buller's Lane in the heart of Colombo. He was in the habit of swimming in his private swimming pool every evening before retiring.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga rushed to the hospital to see him. Air force Helicopters were hovering over Colombo as a security measure. Troops were out on the road.
A few days ago two men were caught videoing his residence, police said.
Kadirgamar, a Jaffna Tamil, but a vigorous campaigner against the LTTE, has been high on the list of the LTTE's hit squads. He had got many countries in the West including the US to ban the LTTE in the 1990s.
Major set back for peace process
If the LTTE had done the deed, as it widely thought to have, the assassination will put back the peace process completely. Kadirgamar was hated by the LTTE and the pro-LTTE Tamils, but loved by the Sinhala leaders and masses.
Kadirgamar was an extremely popular man in India also. External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh had described him as one of the finest chairpersons of international conferences during his last visit to Colombo.
© HT Media Ltd. 2005.