UNP’s North-Central provincial council member Mr. Annoordeen (Attorney at law) and another lawyer Mr. Hameed, his wife and Sirasa Anuradhapura correspondent, Maharoof Mohammed Rashmi (31) were killed in a suicide attack in Anuradhapura that claimed 27 lives.

The bomb blast occurred around 8.45 am in a function held to declare open the new UNP office near the Old Bus Stand in Anuradhapura. Opposition leader of North-Central provincial council Major General Janaka Perera was killed in this attack.

Mr. Annoordeen was one of the only two Muslim provincial councilors elected in the North Central provincial council election held recently. Mr. Hameed was a senior lawyer in Anuradhapura bar and elder brother of late Habeeb Mohamed, a young civil servant brutally killed in Muttur in 1986 the beginning of the terrorism against the Muslims. Late Mr. Hameed’s father was also a victim of an LTTE attack in the Anuradhapura Maha Bodhi in 1985. Nearly 100 civilians were killed in this rampage by LTTE.