Jaffna Monitor - Unafraid and Unbowed

India-Funded KKS Port Deal Nears Signing as Palaly Airport Expansion Stalls

JAFFNA: Sri Lanka and India are close to signing an agreement to redevelop Kankesanthurai Port on the northern coast of the Jaffna peninsula, with Sri Lankan officials saying only cabinet approval in both countries now stands in the way. The expansion of Jaffna International Airport at Palaly, a few kilometres away, has made far less progress. Sri Lankan officials say the work is held up by disputes over land. A senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Jaffna Monito

Our Reporter

Nov 1, 2026 — 4 min read

Teachers’ Union Accuses Northern Governor of Fraud. The Audits Tell a More Complicated Story.

October 2026

Our Reporter

Nov 1, 2026 — 6 min read

Forty Years Ago, a Bullet Struck a Jaffna Schoolboy Who Was Protecting His Classmates

October 2026

Our Reporter

Oct 31, 2026 — 4 min read

One Thousand Years of Belonging – One Mad Command of Exile

Cover Story

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Oct 30, 2026 — 17 min read

Palaly Land Protest Reaches 20th Week as Government Deadline Passes

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka, Nov. 1 — Displaced residents of Valikamam North gathered at Palaly Junction on Sunday for the 20th week in a row to demand that the Sri Lankan military return land it has held since they were driven from their homes 36 years ago. The protesters, many of them elderly, said the army was using their land for farming and for shops and other businesses, while their own families had spent more than three decades without houses or land. They called on President Anura Kumara Dissanay

November 2026

Our Reporter

Nov 1, 2026 — 4 min read

Lal Wijenayake, Who Defied His Own Party to Defend Judicial Independence, Dies at 85

Lal Wijenayake, a Kandy lawyer and six-decade veteran of Sri Lanka’s left who in his final months went to the Supreme Court to oppose a constitutional amendment introduced by his own party, the governing National People’s Power, died on Saturday evening at a private hospital in Kandy. He was 85. At his death, Mr. Wijenayake sat on three of the N.P.P.'s senior bodies: its Leadership Council, its Executive Committee and its National Operations Committee. He came to the coalition, which is built a

Obituary November 2026

Our Reporter

Nov 1, 2026 — 7 min read

Thirty-Four Dead Behind Negombo's Walls

By Jeevan Thiagarajah At about one o'clock on Sunday, 5 July 2026, two detainees in Ward 2 of Negombo Prison got into a quarrel. Within thirty hours, ten officers of the Prison Emergency Response Tactical Force and twenty-two detainees were dead. Two more detainees died the following night after they were transferred to other prisons. More than a hundred people were injured. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka published its findings on 27 October. The 98-page report draws on statements fr

Guest Column OP-ED

Jeevan Thiyagaraja

Nov 1, 2026 — 8 min read

36 Years After Their Expulsion, Jaffna’s Muslims Gather Where It Began

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — On the morning of Oct. 30, 1990, fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam went door to door through the Muslim neighborhoods of Jaffna. Loudspeakers ordered every Muslim man to report to the grounds of Osmania College. There, rebel officials told the community it had two hours to leave the city. By the end of the day, nearly 22,000 people were gone. On Friday, 36 years to the day later, Muslim residents and community leaders gathered in the auditorium of the same sch

October 2026

Our Reporter

Oct 30, 2026 — 4 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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Former Jaffna Hindu College Cricketer Inducted Into U.S. Cricket Hall of Fame

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Dr. Kumar Balakrishnan, a Batticaloa-born pathologist who played five years of school cricket at Jaffna Hindu College before moving to the United States in 1970, was inducted into the Cricket Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Windsor, Conn., on Oct. 3. Dr. Balakrishnan was one of 14 inductees in the Hall's class of 2026. He was nominated by the Staten Island Cricket Club in New York, where he serves as a vice president. The ceremony, the Hall's 45th, was held at the Marriott ho

Sports October 2026

Our Reporter

Oct 29, 2026 — 3 min read

ITAK and DTNA Agree to Work Together in Local Councils

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka, Oct. 28, 2026 — The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) and the Democratic Tamil National Alliance (DTNA) have agreed to work as a single bloc in local government councils and to hold a joint protest against two bills the government has proposed to replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act. M.A. Sumanthiran, ITAK's acting general secretary, announced the agreement to reporters in Jaffna on Tuesday after a meeting between the leaders of the two parties. He said both parties will

October 2026

Our Reporter

Oct 28, 2026 — 2 min read

Former LTTE Operative Linked to Failed Revival Plot Detained After Deportation From India

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Oct. 27 — A former member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who served seven years in an Indian prison for conspiring to revive the separatist group was detained by Sri Lankan counterterrorism police on Monday, hours after India deported him to Colombo. Krishnakumar Kandasamy, 50, known within the organisation as Kanthan, was taken into custody by the Terrorism Investigation Division at Bandaranaike International Airport after arriving on a SriLankan Airlines flight on

JM Exclusive October 2026

Jaffna Monitor

Oct 27, 2026 — 7 min read

Passport Applicants in Jaffna Must Book Appointments Online From Thursday

COLOMBO, Oct. 27 – Passport applicants in Jaffna, Vavuniya, Kandy, Kurunegala and Matara will need an advance online appointment to be served at their regional passport office from Thursday, Oct. 29, the Department of Immigration and Emigration has announced. The requirement covers both the one-day and the regular passport service at all five regional offices. Applicants must reserve a date and time on the department’s official website, www.immigration.gov.lk, before visiting. Those without a b

October 2026