Jaffna Monitor - Unafraid and Unbowed

Invited, Then Turned Away: The 11-Hour Wait That Preceded IRIS Dena’s Sinking.

COLOMBO — In the final days before it was destroyed by a United States submarine in the Indian Ocean, the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena was sailing toward Sri Lanka in response to what sources say was a diplomatic invitation extended weeks earlier by Sri Lankan authorities during a multinational naval gathering in India. The IRIS Dena, a domestically built Moudge-class frigate commissioned into the Iranian Navy in 2021, was part of the country’s Southern Fleet. The vessel was torpedoed south of Sr

Our Special Correspondent

Mar 6, 2026 — 4 min read

U.S. Submarine Sinks Iranian Warship Near Sri Lanka, Drawing Island Into Expanding Conflict

March-2026

Our Reporter

Mar 4, 2026 — 3 min read

Western Governments Renew Pressure on Sri Lanka Over Terror Law and War-Time Accountability

Exclusive March-2026

Our Reporter

Mar 3, 2026 — 2 min read

How They Killed Him

Exclusive March-2026

Our Special Correspondent

Mar 2, 2026 — 5 min read

Sri Lankan Supreme Court Judge Takes Defamation Fight to India

COLOMBO — A sitting judge of Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has taken an unusual step beyond the country’s borders, turning to the Indian judiciary in an effort to force Google to remove online articles he says have shadowed his reputation for nearly a decade. Justice A.H.M.D. Nawaz, who sits on Sri Lanka’s highest court and previously served as President of the Court of Appeal, has petitioned the High Court of Karnataka in Bengaluru, asking it to direct Google India to remove links to articles publ

JM Exclusive March-2026

Our Reporter

Mar 6, 2026 — 4 min read

Jaffna Professionals Advance Climate Plan, Seek Administrative Backing

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka —A coalition of doctors, engineers, journalists and educators in Jaffna is urging the governor and relevant government agencies to support an ambitious plan aimed at making the Jaffna Peninsula more resilient to climate stress, seeking to move the proposal from concept to implementation. The initiative, titled “Green Jaffna,” was presented Tuesday at the Governor’s Secretariat, where Governor N. Vethanayagan reviewed a pilot proposal submitted by IMPACT — Interdisciplinary Mul

JM Exclusive March-2026

Our Special Correspondent

Mar 3, 2026 — 4 min read

Former Foreign Minister Urges Sri Lanka to Clarify Stance as Middle East Crisis Deepens

COLOMBO — March 3, 2026 — G. L. Peiris, Sri Lanka’s former foreign minister, on Monday called on President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to publicly articulate the government’s position on the escalating crisis in the Middle East, warning that the fallout could quickly destabilize key pillars of the island’s still-recovering economy. In a letter dated March 3, reviewed by Jaffna Monitor, and addressed to the President at the Presidential Secretariat, Professor Peiris said the “volatile situation” in

March-2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Mar 3, 2026 — 2 min read

Fuel Supplies Surge in Jaffna Amid Fears of Middle East Conflict Impact

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s state-run petroleum corporation said it had distributed 370,000 liters of petrol across the Jaffna Peninsula over the past two days, responding to what officials described as a surge in purchasing driven by public anxiety over escalating tensions in the Middle East. The distribution covered 43 fuel stations across the peninsula, according to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation. Under normal circumstances, Jaffna District consumes approximately 100,000 liters of pet

March-2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Mar 3, 2026 — 1 min read

Unafraid and Unbowed

Archbishop, Archbishop, why hast thou forsaken us in our hour of sorrow and slaughter?

"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." - Isaiah 58:1 His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo and chief shepherd of the Catholic flock in all of Sri Lanka, has recently marked fifty years in the sacred priesthood. As the highest-ranking prelate whose dominion spans the entire island, he now stands as a mighty voice crying for justice, calling upon the nations of the earth for interv

Editorial July 2025

Kaniyan Pungundran

Jul 14, 2025 — 12 min read

Jaffna Library Burning: The Day They Burned the buddha and his dhamma

Why South Asia Reveres Books-and Fears Their Destruction Irrespective of religion, across the Indian subcontinent, books have long held an exalted status. In the indigenous spiritual traditions that emerged from this land-Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism-knowledge is not merely valued; it is venerated in the highest order. In homes, temples, and schools across the region, people treat books with profound reverence-never touching them with their feet, and if done accidentally, offering a

Cover Story June 2025

Kaniyan Pungundran

Jun 16, 2025 — 14 min read

Chemmani: Where Justice Was Buried

The dead do not speak - but the earth does A few years ago, I visited Cambodia. My original aim was to see the Angkor Wat temple complex. But, as always, my journalistic instincts led me deeper into rural Cambodia, where I found myself in quiet conversations with a few former soldiers of the Pol Pot regime, now living ordinary lives as toddy tappers, farmers, and small shop owners. One of them - a former henchman of the Khmer Rouge - opened up after a few glasses of toddy. In a hauntingly calm

Editorial June 2025

Kaniyan Pungundran

Jun 16, 2025 — 7 min read

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Ethics of AI in an Asymmetric World: A Critical Examination of UNESCO’s 2021 Guidelines

By Mahesh Nirmalan, MBBS, MD, FRCA, PhD, FFICM & Roshan G. Ragel, PhD Mahesh Nirmalan is Associate Vice President for Responsible Research Practice at the University of Manchester, UK. Roshan G. Ragel is Professor of Computer Engineering at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. It is widely recognised that the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on human societies will be profound and is likely to impact all facets of human life. It has been described as the point of “technological sin

Guest Column March-2026

Prof. Mahesh Nirmalan

Mar 3, 2026 — 9 min read

Sumanthiran Says President AKD Asked Him to Serve as Justice Minister

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — M.A. Sumanthiran, the acting general secretary of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), said that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake had asked him to accept the post of Minister of Justice after assuming office — an offer he said he declined, citing his party’s political position and principles. Mr. Sumanthiran made the disclosure on Sunday at a memorial event in Colombo marking the first death anniversary of the Tamil journalist Rajanayagam Bharathi. He was responding to

March-2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Mar 2, 2026 — 1 min read

An Iron Fist Over Four Decades:The Legacy of Ali Khamenei

TEHRAN — For 37 years, Ali Khamenei held a country of 90 million people in his hands. He controlled its military, shaped its courts, sanctioned its security forces, and set the terms under which Iranians could speak, assemble, believe, and dissent. On Saturday, March 1, 2026, the morning after Iranian state television broadcast images of missile strikes on military installations in and around Tehran, international outlets reported his death. Iranian state authorities disputed the claim. The ambi

Exclusive March-2026

Jaffna Monitor

Mar 1, 2026 — 7 min read

Israel–Iran War Sparks Petrol Panic in Jaffna

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Hours after reports emerged that the United States and Israel had launched coordinated strikes on Iran, motorists across Sri Lanka’s Northern and Eastern Provinces began lining up at fuel stations, fearing that the distant conflict could disrupt fuel supplies to the island nation, which remains heavily dependent on imported petroleum. Long queues formed outside petrol sheds in Jaffna town by Saturday afternoon, with motorcycles, three-wheelers, and cars stretching for hundre

February 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Feb 28, 2026 — 2 min read