Lanka rally shooting an underworld clash: polls watch group

COLOMBO: A second person today succumbed to his injuries sustained at a shooting at an election campaign rally by Sri Lanka's ruling party and attended by the finance minister as a polls watch group blamed the incident on inter- gang rivalry between two underworld groups.

The second victim, whose death was reported this morning, was identified as 36-year-old B N Sampath, a resident who had succumbed to gunshot injuries, police said.

He was one of the two injured who were admitted to Colombo National Hospital in critical condition following the first major violence ahead of the August 17 parliamentary elections.

A 52-year-old woman died on the spot at Bloemendhal area in north Colombo when masked gunmen opened fire at the supporters of Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake on Friday.

"It was not an election-related incident but the result of a clash between two drug gangs led by Dematagoda Chaminda and Kudu Lal," Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon of the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) said.

CaFFE accused at least two ruling United National Party candidates of deploying underworld figures in their respective campaigns leading to the polls.

Karunanayake had blamed his political opponents, the loyalists of the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa for the shooting.

The police, however, are yet to determine the cause of the clash.

"It has not been established yet if the shooting was caused due to underworld gang rivalry or political rivalry, Ruwan Gunasekera," a police spokesman said.