Mohammed Hussain Mohammed Ashraff (; 23 October 1948 – 16 September 2000 ) was a Sri Lankan lawyer, politician, government minister and founder/leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress. Early life and family Ashraff was born on 23 October 1948 in Sammanthurai in south-eastern Ceylon. He was the son of Mohammed Meera Lebbe Hussain, a village headman, and Matheena Ummah. Ashraff grew up in Kalmunai where his maternal family, the Kariappers, were very influential. He was educated at Wesley College, Kalmunai. After school he joined Ceylon Law College, passing his examination with first class honours. Ashraff married Ferial. They had one son, Aman. Career Law After qualifying Ashraff started practising criminal law in the Eastern Province in 1974. He joined the Attorney-General's Department as a state counsel in 1975 after a short while returned to practising law. He received a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree (1995) in law from the University of Colombo later and was appointed President's Counsel in 1997. Writings Ashraff wrote short stories, poems and newspaper/magazine articles in Tamil and English. He had a book of poems called Naan Enum Nee published. He worked as a part-time journalist on the Dinapathi daily newspaper whilst studying at Ceylon Law College. Later he published a left-wing magazine called Samathuvam (Equality). He wrote a Tamil book on the constitutional law. Politics Ashraff was an admirer of Tamil political leader S. J. V. Chelvanayakam and spoke at Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (Federal Party) meetings. Following the Puttalam massacre on 2 February 1976 in which at least 6 Muslim civilians were killed by the police, Muslim MPs remained silent and it was left to Chelvanayakam to raise the matter. Ashraff was appreciative of this. Ashraff attended the Vaddukoddai Conference in May 1976 at which the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) unanimously passed the historic Vaddukoddai Resolution calling for the creation of an independent Tamil Eelam. Ashraff and others formed the Muslim United Liberation Front (MULF) political party in 1977 to represent Sri Lanka's Muslim population. Ashraff was MULF's legal advisor and theoretician. MULF formed an alliance with the TULF to contest the 1977 parliamentary election under the TULF ticket. At an election rally Ashraff famously announced that even if big brother Amirthalingam (leader of TULF) abandoned the Eelam goal, little brother Ashraff would continue to fight for it. The TULF won 18 seats at the election but the MULF candidates performed