Jaffna Monitor - Unafraid and Unbowed

Colombo to Take Over the North’s District Hospitals, Reopening a Fight Over Devolution

By Aruliniyan Mahalingam Jaffna, 13 November 2026 The government plans to take control of the four district general hospitals run by the Northern Provincial Council. Many doctors in the region say the change is overdue. Tamil politicians say it strips the council of one of the few powers it actually exercises. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake announced the plan in his budget speech on Thursday. The district general hospitals in Mannar, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya and Kilinochchi will be transferre

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Nov 13, 2026 — 6 min read

One Expressway Stretch Gets More Than Twice What Budget 2027 Reserves for the North and East

November 2026

Jaffna Monitor

Nov 13, 2026 — 7 min read

Sri Lankan Doctor in Australia Suspended for Three Months for Harassing Medical Student

November 2026

Our Reporter

Nov 13, 2026 — 3 min read

Budget Skips Palaly Airport and Kankesanthurai Port, Pledges to Resettle 13,000 War-Displaced Families

JM Exclusive November 2026

Jaffna Monitor

Nov 12, 2026 — 13 min read

A Mass Grave From the JVP’s Bloody Past Now Tests Its Government

Relatives of young people who disappeared during the state’s crackdown on a Marxist uprising in the late 1980s asked the High Court in Matale on Wednesday to revive a judicial inquiry into a mass grave of 155 bodies. The grave was found on the grounds of the town’s main hospital in 2012, and the case has been dormant since 2015. The application was filed by the attorneys Himali Kularatne and Lakmal Sooriyagoda on behalf of the Families of the Disappeared, an organisation of relatives of people

November 2026

Our Reporter

Nov 13, 2026 — 4 min read

Thevakantha Sarma, former EROS member, dies in Berlin at 55

Thevakantha Sarma died in Berlin, where he had lived for many years. He was a former member of the Tamil militant group EROS who later taught mathematics, worked as a nurse in Germany, and encouraged young Tamil writers. He was 55. Known to friends as Sarma and to his family as Kantha, he was born on 10 October 1971 and grew up in Selvanayagapuram, Trincomalee. He was the second son of Shanmugaratnasarma Jegatheeswara Sarma and Sebastiampillai Jesiamma. What happened to his elder brother shape

Obituary November 2026

Our Reporter

Nov 13, 2026 — 4 min read

TID Questions Wife of Critically Ill Tamil Politician and Serves Court Summons

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka: Officers of Sri Lanka’s Terrorism Investigation Division went to the home of M.K. Sivajilingam, a veteran Tamil politician now in intensive care, questioned his wife at length and left a summons ordering him to appear before a court in Mullaitivu next month. The officers visited the family’s house in Valvettithurai, on the northern coast of the Jaffna Peninsula, on Tuesday. They recorded a statement from Mr. Sivajilingam’s wife. Then they served the summons, which requires hi

November 2026

Our Reporter

Nov 13, 2026 — 1 min read

A Rare Childbirth Emergency Killed Sri Lankan YouTuber Nayomichan in Japan

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Nov. 12, 2026 — Asha Nayomi Weerawardhana, the Sri Lankan YouTube and TikTok creator known to her followers as Nayomichan, died in Japan during childbirth after amniotic fluid entered her bloodstream, her younger sister said, citing the post-mortem examination and the death certificate. She was 33. Her son, delivered during the emergency, survived and is recovering. Her sister, Ayesha Weerawardhana, a student in Japan, described what happened in a video posted on Facebook. S

November 2026

Our Reporter

Nov 12, 2026 — 5 min read

UNAFRAID AND UNBOWED

The Long Warning: Inside the Intelligence Trail That Preceded Easter Bombings

By Aruliniyan Mahalingam JAFFNA — On the evening of April 20, 2019, a man at his home in Puthukudiyiruppu took a WhatsApp call from an Indian police officer. The call came sometime between 5:15 and 5:45 p.m. The officer asked him an odd question: where were Sri Lanka's major churches? The man named the ones that came to mind. The Madhu shrine. St. Anthony's at Kochchikade in Colombo. The Tewatta church at Ragama. Then the officer told him that Zahran Hashim's group was preparing to strike Cat

JM Exclusive September 2026

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Sep 8, 2026 — 22 min read

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

Explore our archive of articles, interviews, and creative projects

Monks' Hunger Strike Ends in Head Strike

ANURADHAPURA, Sri Lanka, Nov. 12: A protest that its organisers call a satyagraha, the word Gandhi coined for nonviolent resistance, ended in bloodshed on Thursday morning outside one of Sri Lanka's most venerated Buddhist monuments. Two groups led by clergy came to blows, and a controversial former monk was taken to hospital with a head wound. Rajanganaya Saddharathana, who was expelled from the monastic order last year but is still widely addressed as a thero, was allegedly struck with a clu

November 2026

Our Reporter

Nov 12, 2026 — 3 min read

Two Rails but One Track: The God within and the God beyond in Religious Thought

By Prof. Mahesh Nirmalan, MD, FRCA, PhD, FFICM, University of Manchester Religion is often viewed as a collection of beliefs about god, divinity, creation, salvation, after-life, scripture, ritual and morality. Despite variations in how these concepts are perceived within each tradition, there lies a noticeable pattern in the evolution of religious thought that manifests across most major religions. At various moments, thinkers and reformers have challenged the dominant paradigm of their age.

Guest Column November 2026

Prof. Mahesh Nirmalan

Nov 12, 2026 — 10 min read

Weigh Risks, Not Just Returns, Central Bank Governor Tells Savers

By Asela Kuruluwansha PERADENIYA, Sri Lanka, Nov. 12 — People making financial decisions should weigh risks, future obligations and changing economic conditions, not only the returns they expect, the governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Nandalal Weerasinghe, said on Wednesday. Dr. Weerasinghe gave the keynote address at FinLit Expo 2026, a financial literacy exhibition at the Senate Building of the University of Peradeniya. The bank’s Matale regional office and the university organized t

November 2026

Asela Kuruluwansha.

Nov 12, 2026 — 1 min read

Subbulakshmi Kasinathan, Who Brought ‘Chellamani’ to Life, Dies at 84

Subbulakshmi Kasinathan, a Sri Lankan Tamil actress whom radio listeners knew as Chellamani, the Jaffna-speaking wife of Appukutty in the comedy “Komaligal,” died on Tuesday at Scarborough General Hospital in Toronto. She was 84. She had been admitted to the hospital the day before. Her family said she died at about 4:35 p.m. local time with her two daughters and other relatives at her side. No cause was given. Ms. Kasinathan worked in radio drama, on the stage and in films in Sri Lanka, and l

Obituary November 2026

Our Reporter

Nov 12, 2026 — 4 min read