Today marks 20 years since Tamil politician Joseph Pararajasingham was assassinated by Sri Lankan government-aligned paramilitary men in 2005.
Mr. Pararajasingham, who was a senior Tamil National Alliance (TNA) figure, and the MP for Batticaloa district, was shot and killed by two gunmen whilst he was attending Christmas midnight prayers at the St Mary's church in Batticaloa town on Christmas Eve.
His wife, Sugunam Pararajasingham and seven others were seriously wounded in the gunfire.
The assassination, which occurred during the official ceasefire between the government and the LTTE, was condemned by Tamils around the world.
"Mr Pararajasingham served as a supreme political leader working resolutely to confront forces that attempted to destroy Tamil Nationalism. Tamil people across the world regarded him as an honest leader and his murder has angered and saddened all of us," the head of the LTTE's political wing, S. P. Thamilchelvan told mourners in Kilinochchi who had gathered at his funeral to pay their respects. See here for coverage of his memorial event on December 28, 2005 by TamilNet.
Mr Pararajasingham was posthumously conferred the title 'Maamanithar' by the LTTE.
"The Tamil Nation has lost today a noble man who sacrificed personal ambitions and set a goal working resolutely for the welfare of his people. Silenced today is a voice that relentlessly resonated the freedom of the Tamil homeland and its people. A great man had fallen victim to the enemy's cowardly act of cruelty. It is a great tragedy in the history of the Tamil Eelam freedom struggle," LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, said in a statement conferring the award.
In October 2017, the paramilitary leader, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, alias Pillayan, leader of Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), a government-aligned paramilitary group, was indicted over Pararajasingham's murder. However, in January 2021 the Attorney General Department told Batticaloa High Court that it would not be proceeding with the case against Pillayan.
Pillayan was mentioned in a 2023 Channel 4 investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, which alleged close connections between Sri Lanka's military intelligence and Islamist extremist groups. The documentary specifically accused senior military officials, alongside Pillayan of facilitating or enabling the attacks as part of a strategy to manufacture a security crisis ahead of the 2019 presidential election.
20 years on since the assassination and no one has been held accountable.