{"id":11089,"date":"2026-01-12T01:06:55","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T01:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fmetu.org\/?p=11089"},"modified":"2026-01-12T01:06:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T01:06:55","slug":"the-17th-anniversary-of-the-assassination-of-the-sunday-leader-founder-editor-in-chief-lasantha-wickrematunge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fmetu.org\/?p=11089","title":{"rendered":"The 17th anniversary of the assassination of The Sunday Leader founder Editor-in- Chief Lasantha Wickrematunge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-11092\" src=\"http:\/\/fmetu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thumbnail-3-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fmetu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thumbnail-3-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/fmetu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thumbnail-3-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/fmetu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thumbnail-3-400x533.jpg 400w, https:\/\/fmetu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thumbnail-3.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/> <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-11093\" src=\"http:\/\/fmetu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thumbnail-4-300x189.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"189\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fmetu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thumbnail-4-300x189.jpg 300w, https:\/\/fmetu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thumbnail-4-768x485.jpg 768w, https:\/\/fmetu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thumbnail-4-400x252.jpg 400w, https:\/\/fmetu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thumbnail-4.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The 17th anniversary of the assassination of The Sunday Leader founder Editor-in- Chief Lasantha Wickrematunge, fallen on 8 January,2026.<br \/>\nFamily, friends, former colleagues and others gathered at Borella Kanatte with a service at his gravesideon ,Thursday at 9 a.m. to mark the anniversary and remember Lasantha.The Executive comittee of the FMETU also joined with this event.<br \/>\nAssassinated on 8 January 2009, Lasantha was one of Sri Lanka\u2019s leading journalists and an outspoken critic of the then Rajapaksa Government. He was attacked as he drove to work and later died of his injuries.<br \/>\nThe brazen attack was carried out by two gunmen on motorcycles in the middle of morning-rush-hour traffic. Despite assurances by successive Governments to ensure justice, the investigation into Lasantha\u2019s murder has yielded no tangible results thus far and his killers still roam free, 17 years later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 17th anniversary of the assassination of The Sunday Leader founder Editor-in- Chief Lasantha Wickrematunge, fallen on 8 January,2026. Family, friends, former colleagues and others gathered at Borella Kanatte with a service at his gravesideon ,Thursday at 9 a.m. to mark the anniversary and remember Lasantha.The Executive comittee of the FMETU also joined with this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[37,60],"class_list":["post-11089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fmetu","tag-lasantha-wickramatunga"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The 17th anniversary of the assassination of The Sunday Leader founder Editor-in- Chief Lasantha Wickrematunge - FMETU - Ancestral home (haven)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fmetu.org\/?p=11089\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The 17th anniversary of the assassination of The Sunday Leader founder Editor-in- Chief Lasantha Wickrematunge - FMETU - Ancestral home (haven)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 17th anniversary of the assassination of The Sunday Leader founder Editor-in- Chief Lasantha Wickrematunge, fallen on 8 January,2026. Family, friends, former colleagues and others gathered at Borella Kanatte with a service at his gravesideon ,Thursday at 9 a.m. to mark the anniversary and remember Lasantha.The Executive comittee of the FMETU also joined with this [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fmetu.org\/?p=11089\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FMETU - Ancestral home (haven)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/fmetusl\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-12T01:06:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fmetu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thumbnail-3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Indira Nawagamuwa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Indira Nawagamuwa\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fmetu.org\/?p=11089#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fmetu.org\/?p=11089\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Indira Nawagamuwa\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fmetu.org\/#\/schema\/person\/94cde6ebcb6fb7e9766ce1459dec4bdc\"},\"headline\":\"The 17th anniversary of the assassination of The Sunday Leader founder Editor-in- Chief Lasantha Wickrematunge\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-12T01:06:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fmetu.org\/?p=11089\"},\"wordCount\":152,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fmetu.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fmetu.org\/?p=11089#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/fmetu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thumbnail-3-225x300.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"FMETU\",\"Lasantha Wickramatunga\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fmetu.org\/?p=11089#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fmetu.org\/?p=11089\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fmetu.org\/?p=11089\",\"name\":\"The 17th anniversary of the assassination of The Sunday Leader founder Editor-in- Chief Lasantha Wickrematunge - 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