[BBC]

Police in Sri Lanka are abducting Tamils in Colombo “like dogs”, a leading human rights campaigner says. Convener of the civil monitoring committee (CMC) and leader of the Western People’s Front (WPF) said: “since 12th February seven people were kidnapped by white van in Colombo”. According to Mano Ganeshan, MP, the number of abductions is increasing around Colombo and its suburbs.

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[BBC]

Sri Lanka’s parliamentarians from the ruling coalition and the opposition have accused the government of being responsible for killing Tamil MP, T Maheswaran. Colombo District United National Party (UNP) legislator T Maheswaran, has been shot dead at a Hindu temple in the capital, Colombo. Maheswaran, a former minister and an outspoken critic of government’s policy towards minority Tamils, was clinically dead when he was taken to the hospital, authorities told the BBC.

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[AFP]

An outspoken ethnic Tamil opposition MP was shot dead during a New Year service at a Hindu temple in the Sri Lankan capital Tuesday, the third assassination of a minority legislator in two years. Thiagarajah Maheswaran from the United National Party (UNP) was a vehement critic of the government’s escalating war against Tamil Tiger rebels and a campaigner for the rights of Tamils in the Sinhalese-majority island.

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