 Like Yogeswaran, Sivapalan belonged to the Tamil United Liberation Front.He too was assassinated, on September 11, 1998, when a mine exploded in the Jaffna city council chambers with Sri Lanka Army Jaffna town commander, Brigadier Susantha Mendis and his Principal Staff Officer (PSO), Captain Ramanayaka and Senior Superintendent of Police in charge of Jaffna Division, Chandra Perera.Later it was identified as a Claymore bomb attack and the LTTE was believed to be responsible.