Jaffna Monitor - Unafraid and Unbowed

India-Sri Lanka Fishing Row Risks Dangerous New Escalation After Violent Sea Assault

By M.R. Narayan Swamy “The fishermen issue is an unnecessary irritant that has been allowed to fester for too long,” says Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha, a former Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, hitting the nail on the head. A diplomat who has studied the dispute from close quarters, Sinha made the comment in a just-released book on India-Sri Lanka relations. Like many other Indians, Sinha is aghast that bottom trawlers from Tamil Nadu are causing enormous and lasting environmental destruction

M.R. Narayan Swamy

May 1, 2026 — 6 min read

Sri Lanka Moves to Create a Tobacco-Free Generation, Joining a Growing Global Push

April 2026 JM Exclusive

Our Reporter

Apr 30, 2026 — 7 min read

Indian Lawmaker Seeks to Bar Perarivalan From Legal Practice

April 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Apr 30, 2026 — 4 min read

A.G. Perarivalan, Once Convicted in Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case, Enrolls as a Lawyer

April 2026 JM Exclusive

Our Reporter

Apr 27, 2026 — 2 min read

Reconciliation in Sri Lanka: Enough Promises, Time for Proof

Seventeen years after the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war, reconciliation remains more slogan than substance. It is invoked in speeches, embedded in policy frameworks, and repeated in international forums, but for many citizens, particularly in the North and East, it has yet to translate into meaningful, lived change. The uncomfortable truth is this: Sri Lanka does not suffer from a lack of reconciliation mechanisms. It suffers from a lack of political will, consistency, and sustained execution. R

April 2026 Guest Column

Colonel Nalin Herath

May 1, 2026 — 4 min read

Chemmani Mass Grave Probe Hinges on Fresh Forensic Evidence

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — The future of ongoing excavations at the Chemmani mass grave site in northern Sri Lanka will depend on the results of a fresh round of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) scans after currently identified human skeletal remains are fully exhumed, according to a lawyer representing families of the disappeared. Attorney Ranitha Gnanarajah, who appears on behalf of relatives in the long-running Chemmani mass grave case, said investigators are presently focused on excavating areas wit

April 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

May 1, 2026 — 1 min read

Sri Lankan Fisherman Taken Hostage and Assaulted by Indian Fishermen, Renewing Palk Strait Tensions

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — A Tamil fisherman from Jaffna was severely beaten after being detained at sea by a group of Indian fishermen, according to Sri Lankan fishing associations, Indian police accounts and widely circulated video footage, in an episode that has once again exposed the volatile maritime tensions of the Palk Strait. The fisherman, a 29-year-old man from Vallai in Sri Lanka’s Jaffna District, is being treated at Nagapattinam Government Medical College Hospital in Tamil Nadu, where doc

April 2026 JM Exclusive

Our Reporter

Apr 28, 2026 — 3 min read

Jaffna’s Legendary Teacher Questions Tamil Youths’ Support for Vijay’s TVK

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — R. Kumaran, a veteran physics teacher from Jaffna who has taught generations of students in northern Sri Lanka, has publicly questioned the political maturity of young Sri Lankan Tamils supporting actor-turned-politician Vijay and his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) movement in neighboring Tamil Nadu. In a video widely circulated online, reportedly from a Zoom session with his advanced-level students, Mr. Kumaran — widely regarded in Jaffna as one of the region’s most influen

April 2026 JM Exclusive

Our Reporter

Apr 28, 2026 — 3 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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U.S. Embassy Marks 15 Years of American Corner in Jaffna, Unveils “Freedom 250” Pavilion

JAFFNA — The U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka on April 26 marked the fifteenth anniversary of the American Corner Jaffna at its premises on Athiyady Road in Nallur, and inaugurated a new outdoor structure it has named the “Freedom 250 Pavilion.” The pavilion forms part of a global State Department initiative built around the 250th anniversary of American independence, which falls on July 4, 2026. The American Corner Jaffna was established in 2011 in partnership with the Jaffna Social Action Center, in

April 2026 Monitor Memo

Our Reporter

Apr 28, 2026 — 4 min read

Sowing the Future

A policy framework for agricultural revival in Sri Lanka's Northern Province — and the case for treating it not as a welfare programme, but as an economic system designed to win. By Jeevan Thiagarajah The Northern Province of Sri Lanka holds more than 100,000 hectares of paddy land, some of South Asia's most productive onion soil, and a coastline that ranks among the country's richest fishing grounds. Revitalising it is not merely a regional ambition — it is a national opportunity. This pie

April 2026 Guest Column

Jeevan Thiyagaraja

Apr 27, 2026 — 12 min read

Jaffna M.P. Archchuna Ramanathan Arrested After Brandishing Gun in Land Dispute

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Ramanathan Archchuna, a controversial Jaffna District M.P., was arrested on Monday after he was accused of brandishing a firearm during a land dispute in Periyavilaan, the police said. The arrest follows the circulation of video footage, reviewed by Jaffna Monitor, that appears to show Mr. Archchuna pointing a handgun during a confrontation with a group of residents, including women. Police said one of the women involved in the dispute was also arrested and remanded by cour

April 2026 JM Exclusive

Our Reporter

Apr 27, 2026 — 2 min read

The ‘High’ Road to Enlightenment

Colombo — Shortly after 10 p.m. on a Saturday in late April, a Thai AirAsia jet from Bangkok touched down at Bandaranaike International Airport. Among the passengers, twenty-two young men in saffron robes filed quietly toward the arrivals hall, the way Buddhist monks in transit have moved through this airport for decades — without much notice, and almost without question. They did not get that far. By dawn on Sunday, officers of the Police Narcotics Bureau had laid out the contents of their su

April 2026 JM Exclusive