(Updates with Tamil MP comment, shelling, abductions)

CHAVAKACHCHERI, Sri Lanka, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Black flags draped in mourning, shops shut in protest, thousands of Tamils gathered in Sri Lanka's far north on Wednesday to pay their last respects to the second pro-rebel lawmaker assassinated in a year.

Surrounded by pictures of Hindu gods, mourners sprinkled flowers at the feet of Tamil Tiger-endorsed MP and human rights lawyer Nadarajah Raviraj, murdered in Colombo on Friday by an unknown gunman.

In the distance, artillery shelling could be heard, a near-daily occurrence as rebels and the army exchange fire.

Angry and frustrated residents in Raviraj's Tamil hometown of Chavakachcheri in the northern army-held Jaffna peninsula, said they were sick of violence that has killed about 3,000 civilians, troops and rebels this year.

"This shows the hatred towards the Tamils the Sinhalese have," said 23-year-old Shekar Sintharajah, a student at Jaffna University, after watching a Hindu ceremony at Raviraj's family home.

"Murders and kidnappings have gone too far. How long are they going to kill our MPs and how many?" he added. "These killings must not be allowed nor should they be pardoned."

Joseph Pararajasingam, another lawmaker from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), was shot dead at Christmas midnight mass in the eastern district of Batticaloa.

Raviraj's party, which is widely seen as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's proxy in parliament, have pinned the killing firmly on the majority-Sinhalese government or government-aligned forces.

"The government should take total responsibility for this brutal murder which happened just in front of the military police headquarters," said fellow Tamil MP Suresh Premachandran. "His killers are very confident that they will never be caught."

Rights and aid groups say hundreds of people have been abducted, killed or 'disappeared' in the worst violence since a 2002 truce that has raised fears of a return to a war that has killed more than 67,000 people since 1983.

The Tigers have issued a list of youths on their official Web site www.ltteps.org they say have been killed or abducted in the north and east in recent weeks.

Chavakachcheri, which lies along the main north-south highway that runs from Jaffna through rebel territory, still bears the scars of years of shelling. The ruins of burnt-out buildings pepper the town, which is still emerging from the rubble.

"This is a very, very low cowardly act. They have killed a person who struggled for the freedom of his people in a non-violent manner," said 35-year-old local commerce teacher Thangarajah Gopalakrishnan.

Around 3,500 protesters marched through Sri Lanka's capital with Raviraj's coffin on Monday to demand the government and the Tigers halt fighting.

With near daily artillery clashes in the north and east, around 25,000 people are queueing up to leave the Jaffna peninsula, which is cut off from the rest of the island by a "border" around the Tigers' de facto state.

President Mahinda Rajapakse, under pressure to solve a rash of extrajudicial killings and abductions blamed on both sides, has called for Scotland Yard to investigate Raviraj's murder.

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