Hindu priest assassinated

BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka -- When Hindu priest Selliah Parameswaram Kurukkal welcomed Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa with a blessing and a garland Feb. 3 during the president's tour of Vakarai, an area in eastern Sri Lanka still recovering from the Asian tsunami of 2005, the event was broadcast repeatedly throughout this island nation. Rajapaksa is a Singhalese Buddhist and Kurukkal a Tamil Hindu. Vakarai is in the epicenter of the government's war against Tamil separatists.

Kurukkal was assassinated Feb. 7, likely by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. They had threatened Kurukkal before for cooperating with government tsunami relief efforts.

The Catholic bishops of Sri Lanka called the assassination the height of barbarism. Bishop Rayappu Joseph of Mannar condemned the assassination, noting that the clergy of all religions have played an important role in bringing relief to civilians haunted by the ongoing war.

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