Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has strongly condemned the killing of a Tamil legislator and ordered the police to initiate a speedy inquiry to apprehend the perpetrators.

Nadaraja Raviraj, Member of Parliament of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and his police bodyguard Lakshman, died of injuries after being shot at by unidentified gunmen in Colombo Friday morning.

In a statement issued by the presidential secretariat, Rajapaksa said the killing of Raviraj was a "reprehensible act by those opposed to dissent and political plurals in a democratic society."

Praising Raviraj as a "young, courageous and active politician, " Rajapaksa said the assassination was a deliberate and well planned attempt to bring the country and the government into disrepute.

"It was also a serious move to create obstacles to the efforts being made to bring about better understanding among the different communities in the country, in the search for peace and harmony," said the president.

Rajapaksa has asked the Foreign Ministry to make an urgent request to Scotland Yard to assist in investigations into the assassination.

Raviraj was a lawyer and the mayor of Jaffna, the main Tamil city in the north of the country before entering parliament through the TNA which is seen as a proxy party of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels.

The pro-rebel website TamilNet described the twice elected legislator as "an outspoken parliamentarian who voiced against the extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances in northeast and Colombo."

Source: Xinhua