COLOMBO, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government will award financial compensation to the families of two legislators killed due to violence in the island, a senior government minister said Thursday.

    Minister of Information and Media Anura Yapa told reporters that the families of late Thiagarajah Maheswaran and D. M. Dassanayake will be awarded 5 million rupees (about 45,450 U.S. dollars) each.

    "The cabinet last night (Wednesday) approved this proposal," Yapa said.

    Maheswaran, a legislator from the main opposition United National Party, was gunned down by an unidentified assassin on Jan.1 while Dassanayake, a junior minister of Nation Building was killed in a road side bomb explosion near the capital Colombo on Jan. 8.

    The government blamed the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for both killings.