Students were provided special security to leave the university

Pasan Samarasinghe, 27, a final year student at the Commerce Faculty in Wantharamulla, Batticaloa, was shot dead in mysterious circumstances at the hostel compound.

There was a intermittent power shortage at the time of the incident, residents said.

UGC accused

The defence ministry has accused the Tamil Tigers but the military and the media centre for national security said the assailants were unknown.

	Students say UGC failed to provide adequate security

The Vice Chancellor, Dr. N Pathmanathan, told BBC Sandeshaya that the motive of the killing was not clear.

Chief Minister of the Eastern Province, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan (Pillayan) who visited the university expressed his condolences to Sinhala students.

Police have provided special security for the Sinhala students to leave the university in three buses on Friday afternoon.

Protest in Colombo

Before leaving the university, the students accused University Grant Commission (UGC) of failing to provide them with adequate security.

It is the UGC’s policy to send more Sinhala nationals to the university that has backfired, they told BBC Sandeshaya.

They urged the authorities to transfer all Sinhala students to other universities.

Earlier, parents of the Sinhala students selected for Jaffna and Eastern universities staged a protest in Colombo urging the authorities to transfer their children to other universities.

Police have been questioning four people, including a Tamil student and three security guards, who were arrested after the incident.