Soundaranayagam was born on 6 November 1950, in Morokkotanchenai, Batticaloa District in Eastern Sri Lanka.
[2][5] His private secretary who was travelling with him during the assassination, had only sustained minor injury during the attack, and was later held on suspicion by the police.
[6] The assassination was blamed on Karuna Amman, the Eastern Regional Commander for the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The LTTE were criticized for their long history of assassinating Tamil political figures who sought and end to ethnic conflicts through democracy.
The Sri Lankan government on the other hand, were criticized for not acting against these assassinations and protecting the democratic freedom of the Tamil people.