Hundreds of mourners gathered in an eastern Sri Lankan city to pay final respects to a top Tamil Tiger rebel, who was gunned down earlier this week.
The government intensified security in the city of Batticaloa to avert any outbreak of violence during Thursday's funeral ceremony.
Regional Tamil Tiger political chief, E. Kousalyan along with five aides were killed in an ambush Monday night on a jungle road near Batticaloa.
The rebels blame government-backed paramilitary forces for the attack and warned that it could disrupt post-tsunami reconstruction and efforts to resume peace talks.
The Sri Lankan government denied any involvement, condemned the killings and urged all sides to work for the peace process.
Some information for this report provided by AFP and AP.
