Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, Laxman Kadirgamar, who was shot dead in Colombo on Friday (Photo source: news.bbc.co.uk)

Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, Laxman Kadirgamar, who was shot dead in Colombo on Friday (Photo source: news.bbc.co.uk)
His Majesty King Gyanendra has expressed great shock over the sad assassination of Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka, Laxman Kadirgamar, at his residence on Friday.

In a message of condolence sent to President Chandrika Kumaratunga, His Majesty also condemned what he called the dastardly act of terrorism in strongest terms. “We believe that terrorism is the number one scourge of our times and we in the civilized world need to strengthen our common efforts to defeat it,” His Majesty said in his message, according to official RSS news agency.

Sri Lanka declared a state of emergency and blamed Tamil Tiger rebels of being responsible for the 73-year-old leader’s assassination. An ethnic Tamil himself, Kadirgamar had led efforts to ban the Tamil rebels as a terrorist organisation but later backed peace negotiations.

Tamil Tigers have claimed that they are not responsible for the attack.