A Sri Lankan parliament’s Tamil member has been killed on Friday in an explosion in the north of the country. K Sivanesan the MP & his driver died when a roadside bomb blew up near their car. Tamil rebels have blamed government forces for the death. An official said that the Tigers should take responsibility as the incident happened inside the rebel-held territory.

Mr Sivanesan was the third MP from the rebel-backed Tamil National Alliance to be killed since clashes between the government & the rebels restarted more than two years ago. More than 70,000 people have been killed since the violence began in 1983. The official said that the Tamil people have suffered years of discrimination at the hands of the country’s Sinhalese majority.