An office of a Tamil political party was bombed in Sri Lanka's restive eastern province and two party activists were gunned down elsewhere yesterday, the military said.
The office of the pro-government Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) came under attack in the town of Batticaloa, 303km east of here by road, a military official stationed in the area said by telephone.
At least four men were wounded in the bombing, the military said.
The military blamed the bomb attack on the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but there was no immediate comment from the guerrillas who were outlawed by the EU on Monday as a terrorist group.
In the island's northern district of Batticaloa, two EPDP men distributing the party newspaper were shot dead yesterday, officials said.
The Tigers have accused the EPDP of collaborating with security forces to attack them.
The violence came as Richard Boucher, US assistant secretary of state for south and central Asian affairs, arrived here for talks with Sri Lankan leaders and businessmen on the island's troubled peace process.
Boucher stopped over in Colombo on his way from Tokyo where he attended a meeting of key international stakeholders to review Sri Lanka's troubled peace process and to urge the LTTE and the goverment to re-enter talks.
More than 600 people have been killed in an upsurge in violence since December despite a truce arranged and put in place by peace broker Norway in February 2002.
RSS