Political Assassinations That Shook The World

BANGALORE: In most of the political leaders’ assassinations, there is always a motive behind it. It may be jealousy, political or religious idealism, contract killing, and revenge. As such, every country in the world would have experienced the bitterness of losing some of its famous political entity in the hands of the enemies or some vengeful maniac. Let us have a look at the list of 10 of the most famous political assassinations happened in world history, as compiled by MSN.

Rajiv Gandhi: It was at Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu while campaigning for the Lok Sabha Congress candidate where Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, was assassinated in a suicide bombing on 21st May 1991. A woman identified later as Thenmozhi Rajaratnam approached Gandhi in public and greeted him. She then bent down to touch his feet and exploded a belt laden with 700 grams of RDX explosives inserted under her dress. The explosion not only killed the former PM but also his assassin and at least 25 other people.

The attack was carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist organization from Sri Lanka mainly to prevent him from coming back to power. The assassination trial was conducted under the TADA Act. Till date, the three convicts – Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan are on a death row. Recently, though the Tamil Nadu government has ordered the release of these convicts and four others, the Supreme Court stayed the decision till 6 March 2014.

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