Ashley Nimalanayagam Soundaranayagam (6 November 1950 – 7 November 2000) was a

Sri Lankan Tamil Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, form the plurality in the Eastern Province a ...

teacher, politician and Member of Parliament.

Biography

Soundaranayagam was born on 6 November 1950, in Morokkotanchenai,

Batticaloa Batticaloa (, ''Maṭṭakkaḷappu'', ; , ''Maḍakalapuwa'', ) is a major city in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, and its former capital. It is the administrative capital of the Batticaloa District. The city is the seat of the Eastern Univers ...

District in Eastern

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. He was a school principal. He had earlier worked as a science teacher. During this time, he was detained by Sri Lankan authorities and held at the Boosa camp. Soundranayagam is related to two other former Members of Parliament,

Joseph Pararajasingham Joseph Pararajasingham (; 26 November 1934 – 25 December 2005) was a Sri Lankan Tamil civil servant, journalist, businessman and politician. He was Member of Parliament for Batticaloa District from 1990 to 2004 and a National List Member ...

, and Rajan Selvanayagam. Pararajahsingham was married to Soundranayagam's cousin, Sugunam Joseph, and Rajan Selvanayagam is another cousin of Soundranayagam. He was elected to

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

to represent the Kalkudah Electoral District in the 2000 parliamentary elections. He secured the position with a total of 15,687 personal preference votes.

Death

Soundaranayagam was shot dead on 7 November 2000 in Kiran, less than a month after the 10 October elections. His private secretary who was travelling with him during the assassination, had only sustained minor injury during the attack, and was later held on suspicion by the police. The assassination was blamed on

Karuna Amman Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan (''nom de guerre'': Colonel Karuna Amman; , ''Vināyakamūrtti Muraḷitaraņ''; born 22 June 1966) is a Sri Lankan politician and former militant. Formerly a fighter for the Tamil separatist group, the Liberation ...

, the Eastern Regional Commander for the rebel

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; , ; also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a Tamil militant organization, that was based in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eela ...

. The assassination brought out the public's frustration both at

LTTE The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; , ; also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a Tamil militant organization, that was based in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam ...

, and also at the

Sri Lankan government The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) (; ) is a Semi-presidential republic determined by the Sri Lankan Constitution. It administers the island from both its commercial capital of Colombo and the administrative capital of Sri Jayawardenepura Kott ...

. The

were criticized for their long history of assassinating Tamil political figures who sought and end to ethnic conflicts through democracy. The

on the other hand, were criticized for not acting against these assassinations and protecting the democratic freedom of the Tamil people.

References

1950 births 2000 deaths Members of the 11th Parliament of Sri Lanka Politicians assassinated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Assassinated educators People from Eastern Province, Sri Lanka People killed during the Sri Lankan civil war Tamil politicians Sri Lankan Tamil people Sri Lankan teachers Tamil United Liberation Front politicians Asian politicians assassinated in the 2000s Politicians assassinated in 2000 {{EasternLK-politician-stub