Tamil journalist, Mylvaganam Nimalarajan, was remembered today across the North-East on the 20th anniversary of his assassination.
Nimalarajan, a senior journalist who contributed to the BBC Tamil and Sinhala services, the Tamil daily Virakesari and Sinhala weekly Ravaya, was murdered on October 19, 2000.
The Committee to Protect Journalists stated shortly after his death:
“The assailants shot the journalist through the window of his study, where he was working on an article, and threw a grenade into the home before fleeing the premises. The attack occurred during curfew hours in a high-security zone in central Jaffna town.”
“Local journalists suspect that Nimalarajan's reporting on vote-rigging and intimidation in Jaffna during the recent parliamentary elections may have led to his murder.”
The EPDP, a government aligned paramilitary group are suspected of carrying out the killing. 20 years have passed since Nimalarajan's killing but his killers have not been tried or punished.
Jaffna
Batticaloa
Vavuniya