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Shooting at Sri Lanka Campaign Rally Leaves 1 Dead and 12 Hurt Shooting at Sri Lanka Political Meeting Leaves 1 Dead and 12 Hurt
(about 2 hours later)
KOTAHENA, Sri Lanka — One person was killed and 12 others were wounded when gunmen opened fire Friday into a crowd at a political rally in Kotahena, a suburb of Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo. KOTAHENA, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s parliamentary election campaign took a deadly turn on Friday when unidentified gunmen opened fire into a crowd at a campaign meeting, killing one woman and injuring 12 other people.
Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, who was campaigning for a parliamentary election among a group of about 500 people, said he was just leaving the rally when gunmen in a car sprayed bullets into the crowd. The country’s finance minister, Ravi Karunanayake, was at the meeting in Kotahena, a suburb of the capital, Colombo. He said he had been leaving when gunmen in a car started spraying bullets into the crowd of about 500 attendees.
“I was the target; this was an act of political terrorism,” Mr. Karunanayake said. He escaped uninjured. “I was the target,” Mr. Karunanayake said. “This was an act of political terrorism.”
The gunmen have not been identified. Though he was only 20 feet from the shooting, he escaped uninjured, he said.
Friday’s shooting was the first major violence of a highly charged campaign in which the former president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, is running as an opposition candidate. The episode was the first major violence in a campaign that has been highly charged, with the return of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as an opposition candidate for Parliament.
Mr. Rajapaksa lost the presidency in January to a political coalition led by Mr. Karunanayake’s United National Party. The coalition has regrouped to prevent Mr. Rajapaksa from emerging as prime minister in the parliamentary election scheduled for Aug. 17. Mr. Karunanayake’s party leads a broad political coalition that defeated Mr. Rajapaksa in his bid for re-election as president in January. The coalition has since regrouped to try to prevent Mr. Rajapaksa from winning a majority in the Aug. 17 election and becoming prime minister.
Mr. Karunanayake said he suspected that the shooting was part of an orchestrated campaign by the opposition, led by Mr. Rajapaksa, to spread fear about a resurgence of terrorism before the election. Mr. Karunanayake said he suspected that the shooting on Friday may have been meant to help Mr. Rajapaksa’s political comeback by spreading fear of terrorism before the election.
“The attack was unprovoked,” Mr. Karunanayake said. “These were just innocent people walking from house to house, canvassing with me for votes.” “The attack was unprovoked,” he said. “These were just innocent people.”
Sixteen bullet casings were found at the scene of the shooting, according to monitors from the Center for Monitoring Election Violence, who cited police reports. Mr. Rajapaksa’s spokesman, Rohan Welivita, dismissed Mr. Karunanayake’s suspicion in a telephone interview, saying it was “ridiculous” and “irresponsible” for a government minister to make such a suggestion.
The monitoring group identified the person who was killed as a woman named S. Maheema, a supporter of Mr. Karunanayake’s party. “Mr. Karunanayake is not the police,” Mr. Welivita said. “He cannot reach this conclusion without a complete investigation.”
Of the dozen people hurt in the shooting, five were critically injured and were taken to an intensive care unit at a government hospital in Colombo, the monitoring group said. He continued: “We totally deny these charges. Mr. Rajapaksa is in the Southern Province campaigning today. He has nothing to do with this violence.”
The Center for Monitoring Election Violence, a local watchdog group, said the gunmen were dressed in black and arrived in two unmarked black cars. Citing police reports, the group said that 16 shell casings had been found at the scene, indicating that at least that many rounds were fired.
Five of the wounded people were critically injured and are in the intensive care unit at a government hospital in Colombo, the group said.