SRI LANKA ? Gunmen shot and killed a pro-rebel legislator during midnight Christmas Mass, the government said today, as escalating violence continued to threaten a shaky cease-fire.

Joseph Pararajasingham, 71, was fatally shot at St. Michael’s Church in Batticaloa, eastern Sri Lanka’s main town, military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said. His wife and eight others were wounded.

The lawmaker’s bodyguards returned fire, but it was not known if any of the assailants were wounded.

Pararajasingham represented the Tamil National Alliance, a proxy party of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the rebel group that wants to create a homeland for Sri Lanka’s 3.2 million ethnic Tamil minority in the country’s northeast. A breakaway faction of the rebels is opposed to the alliance.

A pro-rebel Web site reported the incident without comment.

Violence has escalated in the rebel-held northeast since the rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran threatened last month to resume his struggle for a Tamil homeland if the government fails to address Tamil grievances.