Veerasingham Anandasangari, senior vice-president of Sarojini's Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), described her killing as a "cowardly act" and squarely blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for it.

He said another party member of the Jaffna Municipal Council, Paramasivam, was also injured in the incident and had been admitted to a hospital.

"A woman who had been acclaimed as a heroine by the people of Jaffna was killed like an animal," Anandasangari said.

He said Sarojini, 64, had declined security and had been freely moving in the public because she was confident that no one would harm her. He said the only security she had was a police checkpost about 100 metres away from her house.

Reports from Jaffna said two youths arrived at Sarojini's Nallur residence in Jaffna on a bicycle around 10.30 amsought to meet her.

Sarojini, who was then talking to Paramasivan, invited them into the drawing room. Immediately on entering the room, one of them whipped out an automatic weapon and sprayed her with bullets.

The mayor, who had ten to 12 bullet marks on her body, collapsed on the floor. Paramasivam also sustained bullet injuries.

Even as the attackers escaped on the bicycle on which they came, the mayor and the councilor were rushed to Jaffna hospital by neighbours. Sarojini died on the way to the hospital.

Sarojini had led the TULF to victory in the Jaffna Municipal Council election in January, when the first local bodies elections in the peninsula in 14 years were held.

The LTTE had opposed the elections, but failed to disrupt them.

The TULF, the oldest Tamil party which had been consistently targeted by the LTTE for violence and driven out of peninsula, won both the Jaffna Municipal Council and the only Pradeshiya Sabha.

The party's victory was considered a clear vote by the people againstviolence and for peace.

She was the wife of TULF MP V Yogeswaran, who, too, was assassinated by the LTTE along with party secretary general Appapillai Amirthalingam here in July 1989 when the then government of President Ranasinghe Premadasa was engaged in peace talks with the rebels.

Like Yogeswaran, too, had invited three LTTE representatives to his house for talks with the TULF leaders. While the discussions were on, the three militants opened fire on the TULF leaders, killing Amirthlingam and Yogeswaran, while M Sivasithamparam, the present TULF president, sustained a bullet injury.

Blaming the LTTE for the killing of Sarojini, Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) leader K Premachandran said the rebels wanted to destablise the situation in the peninsula.

He said the LTTE was aware that following the local bodies election democracy and normalcy were gradually being restored in the peninsula and they were against this as it would undermine their position.