Jaffna Monitor - Unafraid and Unbowed

A Small School in Mallakam Produces Sri Lanka’s Tamil-Medium Topper

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — A 10-year-old student from a small primary school in Mallakam has secured the highest Tamil-medium score in Sri Lanka’s 2026 Grade 5 Scholarship Examination. Surendar Sabin, a student at Dr. Thangamma Appakutty Junior School, scored 188 marks, the highest result among students who sat the examination in the Tamil medium. The result has brought national attention to a modest school in Mallakam, a town about 10 miles north of Jaffna. Dr. Thangamma Appakutty Junior School, whi

Our Reporter

Sep 3, 2026 — 2 min read

Bimal Does It Again: New Development Remark Revives KKS, Palaly Questions

JM Exclusive September 2026

Our Reporter

Sep 2, 2026 — 2 min read

Thanthai Chelva Monument Smashed in Jaffna

September 2026 JM Exclusive

Our Reporter

Sep 2, 2026 — 2 min read

Sri Lanka Is Reopening Its Worst Cases but Not Finishing Them, Human Rights Watch Says

JM Exclusive August 2026

Jaffna Monitor

Sep 2, 2026 — 10 min read

M.K. Sivajilingam Moved to Intensive Care in Colombo

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — M.K. Sivajilingam, a veteran Tamil nationalist politician and former member of Parliament who underwent a kidney transplant in June, has been moved to the intensive care unit of a private hospital in Colombo, according to people familiar with his condition. Mr. Sivajilingam, who currently serves as chairman of the Valvettithurai Urban Council, had remained in Colombo for continuing treatment after undergoing the transplant. He was admitted to the hospital again last week and

September 2026

Our Reporter

Sep 3, 2026 — 1 min read

U.S. Reveals Wider Role Behind Colombo’s 463-Kilogram Meth Seizure

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The seizure of 463 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine at the Port of Colombo this week grew out of a weeks-long international intelligence operation involving American, Pakistani and Sri Lankan authorities, according to new details released Wednesday by the United States Embassy, offering a fuller account of an interdiction initially described largely through the actions of Sri Lankan investigators. The Embassy said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Delhi Cou

September 2026

Our Reporter

Sep 2, 2026 — 3 min read

New Chinese Ambassador Pledges Stronger Sri Lanka Ties, More Investment

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — China’s new ambassador to Sri Lanka has pledged to deepen relations between the two countries and encourage greater Chinese investment, saying he had felt “no sense of being a foreigner” since arriving on the island, according to an account of his meeting with a senior leader of Sri Lanka’s governing political movement. Ambassador Wei Huaxiang made the remarks during a meeting with Tilvin Silva, general secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, or J.V.P., at the party’s h

August 2026

Our Reporter

Sep 2, 2026 — 2 min read

Rs. 15 Billion ‘Ice’ Haul at Colombo Port Exposes Pakistan-Linked Drug Route

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan authorities have seized nearly half a ton of crystal methamphetamine concealed in a shipping container at the Port of Colombo and arrested several people, including three Pakistani nationals, in one of the country’s largest recent narcotics seizures. Police sources say Pakistan-linked drug trafficking has become a growing concern in Sri Lanka, with the number of major narcotics cases involving Pakistani nationals and networks rising sharply in recent years. The

August 2026

Our Reporter

Sep 1, 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

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

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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Sri Lanka Supreme Court Rejects Full-Bench Request in Challenge to Judges’ Retirement-Age Amendment

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a request for all of its judges to hear challenges to a proposed constitutional amendment that would extend the retirement ages of judges, deciding that the proceedings would continue before a five-member bench headed by the chief justice. The ruling disposed of an unusual preliminary dispute in a closely watched constitutional case: who should sit in judgment on legislation that, if enacted, could extend the tenure of members o

JM COURTS August 2026

Our Reporter

Sep 1, 2026 — 3 min read

Sri Lanka’s Top Judges Weigh an Amendment That Could Extend Their Own Tenure

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka was to begin hearing challenges on Tuesday to a constitutional amendment that would extend the working lives of the judges deciding the case. Before any argument on the amendment itself, the court faced a preliminary question about its own composition: whether five judges are enough. Chief Justice Preethi Padman Surasena announced the five-member bench on Monday and will preside over it. Sitting with him are Justices Achala Wengappuli, Arjuna

JM COURTS August 2026

Our Reporter

Sep 1, 2026 — 2 min read

Hinduism's Temples of Sri Lanka and India: One Living Tradition, Built to Reach Everyone

By Jeevan Thiagarajah A temple is never really finished. It is destroyed, it is rebuilt, and somewhere in that cycle it becomes sacred all over again — not despite the disruption, but partly because of it. That is the argument at the heart of a new book, Sacred Shrines of Sri Lanka: A Profile of Major Hindu Temples. It is also the argument behind the ecosystem now being built around it — a Kindle edition, a website, a Facebook page, and Kovil, a mobile app — so that the same material can reach

Guest Column August 2026

Jeevan Thiyagaraja

Sep 1, 2026 — 9 min read

Court Stops Archaeology Department Work at Kanniya

TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka — A court in eastern Sri Lanka has ordered the Department of Archaeology to halt construction at a disputed religious site near the Kanniya hot springs, where a Hindu temple once stood and where officials say the remains of an ancient Buddhist stupa lie beneath the ground. The Trincomalee High Court issued the interim order on Monday, directing that the site be maintained in its present condition and that no further construction take place until the case returns to court

JM Exclusive August 2026

Our Reporter

Aug 31, 2026 — 3 min read