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Secretary to Chief Minister of Eastern Tamil Province shot
dead P K Balachandran.
Expressbuzz 14 November 2008
"Kumaraswami Nandagoban, Private Secretary
cum advisor to the Chief Minister of the Tamil-speaking Eastern Province,
was shot dead ...in the outskirts of Colombo.. Pillayan is opposed by the
Karuna faction of the ruling Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP).
Karuna, who is now a member of the Sri Lankan parliament thanks to
nomination by the ruling United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA), has been a
trenchant critic of Pillayan’s demand for more autonomy for the Eastern
Province. The tacit support enjoyed by Pillayan from India, has also been an
issue with Karuna."
Kumaraswami Nandagoban, Private Secretary cum advisor to the Chief Minister
of the Tamil-speaking Eastern Province, was shot dead by unidentified persons in
the outskirts of Colombo on Friday, local media reported.
Confirming the report, a top official of the Eastern Provincial government told
Express that Nandagoban alias Ragu (32) and another person, were killed at about
11.30 am while they were traveling in a car in Athurugiriya.
The official said that Nandagoban was a highly educated person who had come back
to Sri Lanka from his adopted home in Australia only to assist the island
country’s first Tamil-speaking provincial Chief Minister, Sivanesathurai
Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan.
The source said that the killers could be Chief Minister Pillayan’s rivals, who
had been out to weaken him. Pillayan is opposed both by the LTTE and the Karuna
faction of the ruling Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP).
According to the pro-LTTE Tamilnet website, Karuna had recently demanded the
removal of Nandagoban from the Chief Minister’s inner circle.
Karuna had also taken over most of the TMVP camps from Pillayan’s loyalists,
sometimes after armed clashes. Karuna, who is now a member of the Sri Lankan
parliament thanks to nomination by the ruling United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance
(UPFA), has been a trenchant critic of Pillayan’s demand for more autonomy for
the Eastern Province. The tacit support enjoyed by Pillayan from India, has also
been an issue with Karuna.
Meanwhile, the LTTE has been gunning for Karuna, since he spearheaded the great
defection in 2004, when most of the LTTE cadre from Eastern Sri Lanka, who under
him, joined the government side.
Only recently, the LTTE had killed about a dozen TMVP cadres apparently
belonging to the Karuna faction. Karuna fears that his cadre has been
infiltrated by the LTTE. A few days ago, he asked the Sri Lankan army to screen
his cadre to identify and weed out LTTE infiltrators.
According to The Island daily ,the Sri Lankan military is alive to the
possibility of the LTTE’s infiltrating government-held areas as bogus members of
Karuna’s TMVP.
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