Release International

A 38-year-old pastor and father-of-four has been shot dead in Jaffna, allegedly by security forces -- as the situation in Sri Lanka worsens daily.

Rev Nallathamby Gnanaseelan of the Tamil Mission Church had just dropped his wife and daughter at a hospital and was making his way by motorbike to a fasting and prayer meeting at his church. A gunman opened fire, wounding him in the stomach, then the head. His Bible was removed from the scene.

Security officials have since tried to claim that the pastor had been suspected of carrying explosives and that he had not stopped when ordered to do so. RI sources dismiss this as an attempt to 'frame' the pastor, who was not involved in politics.

The toll of Christians and their leaders caught up in the violence which threatens to engulf Sri Lanka is rising daily. Believers are getting caught in the crossfire between warring Tamil and Sinhalese communities -- but are also the deliberate target of Buddhist militants trying to suppress Christianity. Although there is no proven religious motive to Rev Nallathamby's murder as yet, his death is likely to aggravate inter-religious tensions.

In Jaffna in the north-east, the paramilitary, Tamil rebels and government security forces have all been blamed for the rising number of extra-judicial killings and disappearances.

Pray for the family and congregation of Rev Gnanaseelan. His children are between the ages of seven and one.

Pray that political leaders would not allow Sri Lanka to slide further into civil war.

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