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.
Timeline of events under "Colombo" issue
Colombo District United National Party (UNP) legislator T. Maheswaran is shot dead at a Hindu temple in the suburbs of Colombo.
Several hundred Tamils are reported to have been arrested and detained by security forces for questioning following the bomb blasts in Colombo.
A suspected LTTE female cadre blows herself up near the Colombo office of Douglas Devananda, the Tamil minister for social welfare, killing his personal secretary. On the same day, a bomb exploded near the entrance to a popular department store in a Nugegoda, a busy suburb of Colombo.
An ex-squadron leader is arrested, suspected of being the ‘kingpin’ of a gang that has been abducting Tamil and Muslim businessmen for ransoms. Media reports state that about 70 Tamils have been abducted over the past year. Recently, about 50 Muslim businessmen were abducted.
The Sri Lankan police expel more than 400 Tamils from Colombo to the North, arguing that the order is part of security controls. The raids are condemned internationally. The Supreme Court later orders the expulsions to stop following a human rights petition.
Two Red Cross volunteers are found dead in the outskirts of Colombo after attending a workshop. The Sri Lanka Red Cross later calls for a probe into the murders.
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.
Suicide bomber kills Major General Parami Kalutunge and three others at a military base in Colombo.
A suicide bomber attacks the main military compound in Colombo, killing at least eight people and injuring some 27 others, including the commander of the Sri Lankan Army, Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka.
State of emergency declared after Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar is assassinated. The LTTE is accused of carrying out the killing.
Tamil language TV news presenter and journalist, Relangi Selvarajah, and her husband are shot dead by unknown gunmen in Colombo.
8 people are shot dead in a suburb of Colombo. The LTTE claims that they were top aides of Karuna, whom they accuse of working with the army - a charge the military denied.
Suicide bomb blast in Colombo - the first such incident since 2001 - raises fears for the fragile peace process.
