Solomon Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), effectively abolished the death penalty in his country in 1956 and three years later he was shot dead by a Buddhist monk.
Concerned by the increasing number of sectarian clashes ravaging the country, the new prime minister ordered the reinstatement of capital punishment and on Friday, June 3rd, 1960, the first victim of the new law was hanged in Kandy, the capital.
He was K. A. Weersinghe, a Christian, who killed the Tamil overseer of the public works department at Bibile during sectarian clashes.