Alfred Duraiappah was a former MP and mayor of Jaffna

Jaffna

Jaffna is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna district located on a peninsula of the same name. Jaffna is approximately six miles away from Kandarodai which served as a famous emporium in the Jaffna peninsula from classical...

, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

 who was assassinated by the Tamil Tigers.

First political murder

A member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party

Sri Lanka Freedom Party

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party is one of the major political parties in Sri Lanka. It was founded by S.W.R.D Bandaranaike in 1951 and, since then, has been one of the two largest parties in the Sri Lankan political arena. It first came to power in 1956 and since then has been the predominant party in...

, Alfred Duraiappah was a former MP and mayor of Jaffna

Jaffna

Jaffna is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna district located on a peninsula of the same name. Jaffna is approximately six miles away from Kandarodai which served as a famous emporium in the Jaffna peninsula from classical...

. His assassination by the Tamil Tiger

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was a separatist militant organization formerly based in northern Sri Lanka. Founded in May 1976 by Vellupillai Prabhakaran, it waged a violent secessionist and nationalist campaign to create an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka for Tamil...

 leader Velupillai Prabhakaran

Velupillai Prabhakaran

Thiruvenkadam Velupillai Prabhakaran was the founder and leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , a militant organization that sought to create an independent Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka...

 in July 1975 is considered a seminal event marking the onset the Sri Lankan civil war. Duraiappah was killed on his way to a Hindu

Hindu

Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...

 temple for prayers, although he himself was a Christian.

His tenure and Jaffna prosperity

His tenure as the mayor of a long neglected city saw it endowed with funds for development from the government in Colombo

Colombo

Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...

. Roads were paved, stadiums built and jobs were created. His period of office also saw an increase in the prosperity of the Jaffna farmers as the prices of agricultural produce rose, possibly due to government policies enacted at the time.

External links

• First Military Operation - Pirapaharan Returns
• The Murder of Alfred Duraiappah
• SRI LANKA: NO WAR NO PEACE
• Claims and Dilemmas: 25 years after Duraiappah
• Alfred Duriappah - A Tamil Article
• Inside Story into the murder of Alfred Duraiappah - UTHR(J) report
• Asian Tribune’s smoking gun revelation: Interpol expert R. Suntha substantiates AT’s revelation on the shooting of Jaffna mayor, Asian Tribune, September 28, 2010