T. Maheswaran

According to the spokesperson of Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence, the gunman was wounded when Maheswaran's bodyguard returned fire and had been arrested and hospitalized. He is the third prominent minority Tamil parliamentarian to be killed. Joseph Pararajasingham and Nadarajah Raviraj were the other parliamentarians who were critical of the war effort who were killed during the years 2006 to 2008. On 27 August 2012, Colombo High Court Judge, Sunil Rajapaksa sentenced the main accused John Pauline Wellington, who is a former LTTE intelligence carder worked for Director of Military Intelligence Major General Kapila Hendawitharana should be hanged to death within the four walls of the Welikade Prison on a date ordered by the President.

His widow Vijayakala Maheswaran succeeded him and was elected to parliament in 2010 and 2015.

According to the United National Party spokesperson, Maheswaran was killed as he was about to divulge the names of the paramilitary operatives who are responsible for daily killings of civilians in the minority dominated Jaffna peninsula as part of the ongoing Sri Lankan Civil War. In June 2007, he was very vocal in his opposition to the Expulsion of non-resident Tamils from Colombo.

He was shot dead by unknown gunman while attending the New Year prayers at Kotahena, Sivan Kovil around 10:35 local time (05:05 GMT) and later succumbed to his injuries at the Colombo General Hospital along with one Hindu pilgrim who was too attending to the prayers. He had escaped an earlier assassination attempt in 2004. UNP parliamentarians Johnston Fernando and Dayasiri Jayasekara accused the current government as responsible by saying that T. Maheswaran's plan to reveal Jaffna situation has led to his murder. The government has denied any responsibility. To the accusation that Douglas Devananda a cabinet minister and leader of the EPDP political party was involved in his murder and had previously threatened T. Maheswaran, Douglas had denied any responsibility.

Thiyagarajah Maheswaran (Tamil: தியாகராஜா மகேஸ்வரன் ) (10 January 1966 – 1 January 2008) was a Tamil Sri Lankan Member of Parliament (MP) from Colombo. He belonged to the main opposition United National Party and was critic of Rajapakse government's war against Tamil rebels. He was the former Hindu Affairs minister and a former Member of Parliament for Colombo District, escaped an assassination attempt on the final day of the 2004 election campaign in Colombo. He was assassinated by a gunshot on 1 January 2008 while worshipping at a Hindu temple with his family. Number of other devotees were also injured. The injured gunman has been apprehended and is in police custody in a hospital.