Mr. Maheswaran was shot at close range as he was coming out of the temple after offering prayers. A security officer of the MP was also killed and 12 others were injured in the incident.

The police claimed to have arrested the assailant, who was wounded in retaliatory firing by the personal security officer of the MP. The police identified the suspect as a resident of Gurunagar in Jaffna and said he is under close custody of police and receiving treatment at the National hospital in Colombo. However, the name of the detained man was not released.

Mr. Maheswaran, a former Minister and Colombo district UNP parliamentarian, was a vocal critic of the alleged human rights violations by the military and para-military groups. The UNP had accused the government of exposing Mr. Maheswaran to danger by scaling down his security despite innumerable requests.

A report posted on the Defence Ministry web site, however, sought to refute the charges. “Meanwhile, expressing views to defence.lk, a political analyst said the immediate arrest of the gunman has dismantled attempts of opposition party and pro-LTTE agents to cast doubts on the killing of Mr. Maheswaran.”

Expressing shock over the killing, President Mahinda Rajapaksa told a gathering of employees of the President’s office that despite “political differences” the two of them (Mr. Maheswaran and the President) remained friends.

He told the employees that Mr. Maheswaran invited and welcomed him to Jaffna for a meeting when he was the leader of the opposition.

TamilNet in a report said that the shooting of Mr. Maheswaran came a few hours after the parliamentarian had said in the course of a television programme that he would reveal details on how abductions and killings in Jaffna are managed by the Sri Lankan establishment through the EPDP paramilitary from Colombo. Mr. Maheswaran, who was a former Hindu Affairs Minister and an ex-MP for Jaffna, escaped an assassination attempt on the final day of the 2004 election campaign in Colombo. On December 21, a UNP candidate, Muthukumar Sivapalan, was shot and killed in Jaffna.

Another Tamil parliamentarian in Colombo, Mano Ganesan, the leader of the Western Province People’s Front (WPPF) and the convener of the Civil Monitoring Committee last week told the media that he was left with no option but leaving Sri Lanka temporarily as the lives of Tamil parliamentarians have been endangered by the reduction of security provided to them.

Two years ago, a Tamil National Alliance Member of Parliament, Joseph Pararajasingham, was shot and killed at St. Mary’s co-cathedral church in Batticaloa city, while attending prayers on Christmas Eve.

A lawyer-turned-politician and former mayor of Jaffna, Nadarajah Raviraj, was assassinated in Colombo on November 10, 2006.