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Pararajasingham stood up for Tamil cause
By Chris Kamalendran
Christmas had dawned and with only minutes away before the end of the festive high mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Batticaloa town when the congregation was suddenly shocked by the ominous sounds of gunfire.

Bishop Kingsly Swampillai the chief celebrant was distributing Holy Communion at the time the gunman fired at TNA parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingham, his wife Sugunam and a few others occupying the front pew of the cathedral.
They had only just then returned to their seat after having received the Sacred Host at the hands of the Bishop.

While some of those present sought shelter under the pews, some others ran helter-skelter hoping to get out of the building. The Christmas mass came to an abrupt end and in the ensuing chaos it was not too difficult for the gunman to make his escape. Mr. Pararajasingham was rushed to hospital and was pronounced dead on admission.

By carrying out the assassination inside the church on Christmas Day, the group that conspired to kill Mr. Pararajasingham, was aiming to gain the maximum possible publicity for its cause.

Bishop Swampillai told The Sunday Times that he had served Holy Communion to Mr. Pararajasingham and his wife and they were returning to their pew when the shooting took place.

“This is the first time that such an incident has taken place during a Christmas mass. Needless to say the incident created fear and panic in the minds of the people gathered in church”, he said.

The assassination was soon followed by the distribution of a handbill in the early hours of Christmas Day, warning TNA parliamentarians representing the Batticaloa district to resign their seats.

The leaflet signed by a group calling itself ‘Shennan Padayan’ (Hissing Force) in Tamil named six parliamentarians from the eastern province – R. Sampanthan, S. Jeyanandamoorthy, T. Kanagasabai, K. Thanageshwari, K. Pathmananthan and K. Thurairathnasingham

“The MPs by supporting the Wanni faction are betraying the people in the east. Therefore the people are getting killed unnecessarily. We are severely warning those who are trying to massacre our people”, the group warned in the leaflet.

The leaflets said the people in the east were suffering as the MPs were continuing to support the Wanni faction and warned the named MPs too would suffer the same fate.

The distribution of the leaflet is also part of the investigations being carried out by a special team from Colombo sent on the directions of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

The team is continuing its investigations while waiting for the injured family members of the slain MP to recover before recording their statements and of those present in the church on that fateful morning.

The government claims the killing was carried out by the LTTE, but other Tamil sources charge that it was the work of the Karuna faction. While the investigations into the assassination continue, the LTTE posthumously honoured Mr. Pararajasingham who was one among more than a dozen Tamil MPs allegedly assassinated by the LTTE or other rival groups.

The killing has sparked off a sense of fear among other MPs who are considering the option to quit. One of those seriously thinking of calling it a day was Ms. Thangeshwari who told The Sunday Times that even previously the MPs regularly received death threats, but in the recent weeks the number of threats has increased.

“We have already told the party leadership to take this issue up with the government to ensure the safety and security of the MPs”, she said.
The killing has also triggered off a fear psychosis among the civilians as they expect an upsurge of violence in the days to come.

Ironically Mr. Pararajasingham was appointed to parliament in 1990 to fill the vacancy created by the death of Sam Thambimuttu who was allegedly killed by the LTTE opposite the Canadian High Commission in Colombo. Mr. Thambimuttu’s wife too was killed in the incident.

Mr. Pararajasingham was born at Manipay in Jaffna and educated at St. Michael’s, Batticoloa. He began his working life as manager of a cinema in Batticaloa and later became its owner.

Since 1969 he functioned as a correspondent of the then daily newspaper Dinapathi and its weekly sister paper Chinthamani. During his 20 years as a journalist he wrote numerous articles which outlined the feelings, the rights, the aggression and suppression that he perceived, confronted the Tamil community.

At the 1994 general election, he polled the highest number of preferential votes in the North and East.

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