The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the ex-Prime Minister of India, occurred as a result of a suicide bombing in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, in Tamil Nadu, India on 21 May 1991. At least 14 others were also killed. It was carried out by Thenmozhi Rajaratnam, also known as Dhanu. The attack was blamed on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a militant organization from Sri Lanka; at the time India had just ended its involvement, through the Indian Peace Keeping Force, in the Sri Lankan Civil War. Subsequent accusations of conspiracy have been addressed by two commissions of inquiry and have brought down at least one national government.
Rajiv Gandhi, the 46-year-old former Indian prime minister, has been assassinated. He was campaigning for the Congress Party on the second day of voting in the world’s largest democratic election when a powerful bomb, hidden in a basket of flowers, exploded killing him instantly.
At least 14 other people were also killed in the attack in the town of Sriperumbudur, about 30 miles from Madras, the capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
No-one has admitted carrying out the murder but it is being blamed on Mr Gandhi’s arch enemies, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a violent guerrilla group fighting for a separate homeland for Tamils on the island of Sri Lanka.
Why did LTTE Assassination Rajiv
It later emerged that a female Tamil Tiger (LTTE) suicide bomber had assassinated Rajiv Gandhi.
In 1987 Mr Gandhi, then prime minister, had sent Indian peacekeeping forces to Sri Lanka in a disastrous attempt to impose peace in the country. The move proved unpopular both at home and abroad and his troops pulled out in 1990.
A year after Mr Gandhi’s death, the Tamil Tigers were outlawed in India.
PV Narasimha Rao, succeeded Gandhi as Congress leader and became India’s prime minister later that year.
After a number of bribery scandals, the party was heavily defeated in the 1996 elections. But its popularity was revived in 1998 by Mr Gandhi’s Italian-born widow Sonia who took over as leader and returned the party to power in the 2004 elections.