Assassinations
| Position/Status | Number |
|---|---|
| President of Sri Lanka | 1 |
| Prime Minister of India | 1 |
| Presidential candidate | 1 |
| Leaders of political parties | 10 |
| Cabinet Ministers | 7 |
| Members of Parliament | 37 |
| Members of Provincial Councils | 6 |
| Members of Pradeshiya Sabha | 22 |
| Political Party Organisers | 17 |
| Mayors | 4 |
The LTTE has been condemned by various groups for assassinating political and military opponents. The victims include Tamil moderates who coordinated with Sri Lanka Government, Tamil paramilitary groups assisting Sri Lankan Army. The assassination of the Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa is attributed to LTTE. The seventh Prime Minister of the Republic of India, Rajiv Gandhi, was assassinated by an LTTE suicide bomber Thenmozhi Rajaratnam on 21 May 1991. On 24 October 1994, LTTE detonated a bomb during a political rally in Thotalanga-Grandpass, which in turn wiped out most of the promonent politicians of the United National Party, including presidential candidate Gamini Dissanayake MP, Cabinet ministers Weerasinghe Mallimarachchi and G. M. Premachandra, Ossie Abeygunasekara MP and Gamini Wijesekara MP.
LTTE sympathizers justify some of the assassinations by arguing that the people attacked were combatants or persons closely associated with Sri Lankan military intelligence. Specifically in relation to the TELO, the LTTE has said that it had to perform preemptive self-defence because the TELO was in effect functioning as a proxy for India.
Read more about this topic: Coat Of Arms Of Tamil Eelam