Vanniasingham Vigneswaran (died in 2006) was a Sri Lankan Tamil politician and president of the Trincomalee District Tamil Peoples' Forum. He was selected as the

National List Member of Parliament A national list member of parliament (national list MP) is a nominated member of parliament who is appointed by a political party or an independent group to the Parliament of Sri Lanka. The number of national list MPs allocated to a contesting pa ...

to replace Joseph Pararajasingham by the

Tamil National Alliance The Tamil National Alliance (TNA; ISO 15919: ''tamiḻt tēciyakkūṭṭamaippu'') was a political alliance in Sri Lanka which represented the Sri Lankan Tamil minority of the country. It was formed in October 2001 by a group of moderate T ...

who had been assassinated to the Sri Lankan Parliament.

Death

Vigneswaran was shot dead at 9.30 am outside the Bank of Ceylon in Inner Harbor Road between the office of the Senior Superintendent of Police and Trincomalee Harbor Police in Trincomalee in a High Security Zone on 7 April 2006. Vigneswaran had led a campaign against the installation of a Buddha statue close to the Trincomalee central bus stand by the

Sri Lankan Army The Sri Lanka Army (; ) is the oldest and largest of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces. The army was officially established as the Ceylon Army in 1949, though the army traces its roots back in 1881 when Ceylon Light Infantry Volunteers was created; t ...

in May 2005. In June 2005 grenades were thrown at his house. On 8 April 2006 the

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 ...

conferred the title Maamanithar (great human being) on Vigneswaran.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vigneswaran, Vanniasingham Sri Lankan Tamil activists Sri Lankan Tamil people 2006 deaths 1955 births Tamil politicians Maamanithar Tamil National Alliance politicians Asian politicians assassinated in the 2000s Politicians assassinated in 2006