The Sri Lankan government will award financial compensation to the families of two legislators killed due to violence in the island, a senior government minister said Thursday.
Minister of Information and Media Anura Yapa told reporters that the families of late Thiagarajah Maheswaran and D. M. Dassanayake will be awarded 5 million rupees (about 45,450 U.S. dollars) each.
"The cabinet last night (Wednesday) approved this proposal," Yapa said.
Maheswaran, a legislator from the main opposition United National Party, was gunned down by an unidentified assassin on Jan.1 while Dassanayake, a junior minister of Nation Building was killed in a road side bomb explosion near the capital Colombo on Jan. 8.
The government blamed the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for both killings. Source: Xinhua
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