A subsequent police investigation concluded that the grenades had been thrown by a member of the banned Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) organisation, which was staging a rebellion in the country at the time.

Faced with the prospect of Indian military involvement to support the militants, Sri Lankan President J. R. Jayawardene was pressured into signing the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord on July 29, 1987.

It called for Tamil rebels to lay down their arms, in exchange for limited autonomy in the north and east of Sri Lanka.

[2] As Rajiv Gandhi was leaving Sri Lanka following the signing of the accord, a member of the honor guard stuck him in the head with a rifle butt.

[1] The group initially observed two minutes of silence in memory of Jinadasa Weerasinghe, the Member of Parliament for Tangalle, who had been assassinated a few days earlier by the JVP.

[4] As MP A. D. B. Ekanayake was speaking to the group, an assailant in the adjoining room hurled two grenades at the head table where the President J. R. Jayawardene and Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa were sitting.

[4] Using wooden chairs, they broke the thin plate glass overlooking the Parliament lawn to escape the room, and were immediately bundled into cars and driven away.

[4] Member of Parliament for the Matara District Keerthisena Abeywickrama, whose face was blown off due to the explosion, was carried outside and rushed to hospital, but died on the way there.

[4] In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Sri Lankan President J. R. Jayewardene blamed "terrorists" among the Sinhalese population for the incident.

They also told the BBC they were seeking revenge for Jayewardene's "betrayal of Sinhalese interests in granting greater political autonomy to ethnic Tamil areas".

[8] Although the Police sealed off the Parliament building following the attack, initial reports stated that the assailant fled in the panic that followed the explosions.

[7] Subsequent investigations suggested that Ajith Kumara, an activist of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna who was working for a private catering service inside parliament, had thrown the grenades into the committee room.