The editor of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunge, is fatally shot in Colombo on his way to work by unidentified gunmen on motorcycles. Wickrematunge was rushed to a nearby hospital for emergency surgery, but later succumbed to his injuries.
Timeline of events under "Assassinations" issue
A suicide bomb blast in Anuradhapura kills at least 27 people, including Major General Janaka Perera, a former military commander in the 1990s.
The LTTE reports that Rev. Fr. Karunaratnam, chairperson of the North East Secretariat for Human Rights (NESHOR), was killed in a claymore mine allegedly detonated by government soldiers.
A suicide bomb blast kills Highways Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle. The military blamed the attack on the LTTE and said that 10 people were killed and 25 injured by the explosion.
Sri Lankan rights group University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR) finds state security forces responsible for murder of 17 Action Contre La Faim (ACF) aid workers.
The Minister for Nation Building, D.M. Dassanayake, is killed in a suspected LTTE claymore mine attack of his convoy of vehicles in the Jah-Ela area, outside Colombo.
TNA parliamentarian for the Jaffna District, K. Sivanesan is killed in a claymore mine explosion.
Colombo District United National Party (UNP) legislator T. Maheswaran is shot dead at a Hindu temple in the suburbs of Colombo.
Air strikes of a meeting of top rebel leaders kill S.P. Tamilselvan, the head of the LTTE’s political wing and five others.
The Chief District Secretary of the Eastern province is shot dead in Trincomalee. The Government accuses the LTTE.
Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Natarajah Raviraj and his bodyguard are shot dead in Colombo.
Kethesh Loganathan, Deputy Secretary to the government’s Peace Secretariat, is assassinated at his home. The LTTE is blamed for the killing.
17 aid workers belonging to the French agency ‘Action Against Hunger’ (ACF) are killed in Muttur. Allegations are made against the returning Sri Lankan troops.
Freelance journalist, Sampath Lakmal de Silva, is abducted and later murdered south of Colombo. He is the first Sinhalese journalist to be murdered in eight years (the recent journalists murdered have all been Tamil).
Anton Balasingham, chief negotiator of the LTTE, apologises to India for the LTTE's assassination of former Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, in 1991.
