Jaffna Monitor - Unafraid and Unbowed

Magistrate Who Ordered Police to Stop Baseless Cases Is Transferred

By Our Legal Correspondent JAFFNA, Sri Lanka: The Judicial Service Commission has removed Bandula Gunaratne from the bench in Gampaha and posted him to the Sri Lanka Judges’ Institute, the judiciary’s training body, a little over two weeks after he asked the Court of Appeal to bring contempt proceedings against the Inspector General of Police, Priyantha Weerasooriya. The transfer, effective immediately, was announced on Nov. 6 in a letter from the commission’s secretary, Prasanna Alwis. It cam

Jaffna Monitor

Nov 7, 2026 — 6 min read

In Sri Lanka’s North, Families Return to the Graves the Army Destroyed

JM Exclusive October 2026

Our Reporter

Nov 6, 2026 — 5 min read

Canada Orders a Sri Lankan Tamil to Report for Removal as Deportations Hit a Record

November 2026

Our Reporter

Nov 6, 2026 — 7 min read

Sri Lanka’s Ethnic Conflict Was Not an Elite Invention, and It Will Not Wait for Trust

JM Exclusive November 2026

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Nov 2, 2026 — 10 min read

Polonnaruwa Surgeon Killed in Crash With Sand Tipper

HABARANA, Sri Lanka —A consultant general surgeon at the District General Hospital in Polonnaruwa was killed on Friday afternoon when the car he was driving collided head-on with a sand-laden tipper truck on the Minneriya-Habarana main road, the police said. The surgeon, Dr. Rohana Gamage, 49, lived in Polonnaruwa New Town. He was driving from Minneriya toward Habarana when the crash occurred at about 3 p.m. at the seventh milepost, an area known locally as Hathe Kanuwa, the police said. The tr

October 2026

Our Reporter

Nov 6, 2026 — 2 min read

Chinese Communist Party to Brief Sri Lanka’s Governing JVP on Party Discipline

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: A delegation from the Communist Party of China is expected to visit Sri Lanka soon to brief members of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, the party at the core of the governing National People’s Power coalition, on the Chinese party’s approach to internal discipline and party building, according to the J.V.P.’s general secretary, Tilvin Silva. Mr. Silva said in a Facebook post that he had been told of the planned visit during a meeting on Thursday with China’s ambassador, Wei Hu

November 2026

Our Reporter

Nov 5, 2026 — 2 min read

Families of Jaffna’s Disappeared Elect New Leaders and Call Protest Over Chemmani Report

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka: An association of families of people who disappeared during Sri Lanka’s civil war has elected a new leadership in Jaffna district. It has also announced a protest at the Chemmani mass grave site to reject an archaeologists’ interim report that found the burials more closely resembled formal interment than a clandestine grave. The Jaffna District Association of Relatives of the Enforced Disappeared held the election at the Sivaguru Aadheenam hall in Nallur. Sivanandan Jeyatha

November 2026

Our Reporter

Nov 5, 2026 — 2 min read

From Prison, Pillayan Blames ‘Fake Nationalists’ for Batticaloa Grazing Land Deadlock

BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka: Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, the former Eastern Province chief minister who is being held on remand in several criminal investigations, has accused unnamed “fake nationalists” in Batticaloa of sabotaging an administrative settlement of the dispute over the Mayilathamadu and Madhavanai grazing lands. Subramaniyam Jeevanraj, a functionary of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal, the party Mr. Chandrakanthan leads, made his remarks public. In a Facebook post written in Tami

November 2026

Our Reporter

Nov 5, 2026 — 3 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

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Opposition MP Blames US Port Grant for Loss of $392 Million Chinese Project

COLOMBO: An opposition lawmaker accused the government on Wednesday of losing a $392 million Chinese investment at Colombo Port by accepting a $17 million grant from the United States. The claim is contradicted by the Chinese company’s own stock exchange filing and by the date the American grant was announced. Mujibur Rahman, a parliamentarian of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), was speaking in a debate on regulations under the Imports and Exports (Control) Act. He said the government had inst

November 2026

Our Reporter

Nov 5, 2026 — 4 min read

The Language Beneath the Language

By Aruliniyan Mahalingam In one of Alagu Subramaniam’s stories, a woman named Mrs. Ramasamy is riding home to Atchuvely in a bullock cart. She has just left her daughter, Parvathy, at a girls’ school in Jaffna town, and she will not see her for three months. She is crying. The carter, Subbu, asks her to stop, because anyone who sees her in tears will think he has wronged her. Subramaniam gave her reply in English: “Don’t talk nonsense. You are like a father to me. You are an old man, you woul

November 2026

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Nov 4, 2026 — 10 min read

Trump Loses Congress, and His Free Hand

By The Jaffna Monitor Staff JAFFNA, Nov. 4: On Tuesday, voters gave control of both the House and the Senate to Democrats, handing President Trump’s opponents the power to investigate his administration, control federal spending and block his nominees for the last two years of his term. Republicans had held 53 of the Senate’s 100 seats, and Democrats needed a net gain of four to win a majority. They gained seven: Ohio, Iowa, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maine, Kansas and Texas. Democrats hav

JM Exclusive October 2026

Jaffna Monitor

Nov 4, 2026 — 12 min read

As Sivajilingam Fights Illness, Political Rivals Question His Sick Leave

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka: M.K. Sivajilingam, a veteran Tamil nationalist politician and chairman of the Valvettithurai Urban Council, was admitted to the intensive care unit of Point Pedro Base Hospital on Monday after his condition suddenly worsened. Mr. Sivajilingam, a former member of Parliament, had a kidney transplant at a private hospital in Colombo on June 11 after both his kidneys were severely damaged. He returned home after several weeks in hospital. When his health declined again, he was ad

November 2026

Our Reporter

Nov 4, 2026 — 2 min read