Not suicide, Mob killed Sri Lanka's MP during violence: Cops

Colombo, May 13: The Sri Lankan police on Friday said that the former ruling party legislator who died in a violent clash in the western town of Nittambuwa was beaten to death by a mob and it was not a suicide as reported earlier.

"The MP who was killed was actually murdered," Police Spokesman Nihal Thalduwa was quoted as saying by the EconomyNext newspaper on Friday.

"He was not shot at. He was murdered by the protesters. He was killed by beating. He was escaping, but he got caught and was beaten to death. It was not a suicide," Thalduwa said. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has ordered an investigation into the violent clashes that killed at least nine people, including Athukorala, while nearly 300 were injured.

Amarakeerthi Athukorala, a Member of Parliament in former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa-led Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) administration died on Monday in the country's Western town of Nittambuwa following a clash with an angry mob.

It was reported earlier that the 57-year legislator from Sri Lanka's North Central district of Polannaruwa died by suicide by shooting himself after he opened fire at two members of the group which had surrounded his vehicle on Monday.

The clashes started after supporters of the then prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa attacked unarmed and peaceful protesters with iron rods and wooden poles near Rajapaksa's official residence and the presidential secretariat in Colombo on Monday. Rajapaksa resigned soon after the attack. Rajapaksa supporters' brutal attack came after a meeting with him and his political allies who were mostly legislators.

Meanwhile, 73-year-old Ranil Wickremesinghe has been appointed as the new Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, days after Mahinda Rajapaksa stepped down from the position.