Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said it was too early to say who was behind the monk’s killing in the far northeastern district of Trincomalee, where troops have evicted the rebels from territory they held under the terms of a now tattered 2002 ceasefire in recent months.

“Two gunmen have come and shot him,” Samarasinghe said. “It is too early to say who has done it or even who we suspect has done it. It was in a Sinhalese area.”

The Tigers were not immediately available for comment.