Unidentified gunmen shot and killed Nadarajah, editor of the Tamil daily Thinamurusu, on the streets of Colombo. Gunmen surrounded Nadarajah’s van on his way to work. His driver was also killed in the attack, and two passers-by were injured.
Nadarajah was also a member of Parliament, representing the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), a former Tamil rebel group that entered mainstream party politics in 1990. Though the EPDP are considered moderate in comparison with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a guerrilla group that is still fighting for a separate homeland for the Tamil people, news reports have indicated growing fissures in the party. Political observers in Sri Lanka noted that Nadarajah often criticized his own party in the pages of Thinamurusu and had also expressed his support for Tamil militants.
By year’s end, police had made no arrests in the case.