JAFFNA, Sri Lanka – Hundreds of anguished Tamils staged a noisy protest outside the Jaffna District Secretariat, demanding the immediate return of their precious land, which the military seized 36 years ago to battle the Tamil Tigers. An estimated 500 men and women picketed the office complex for around three hours from 8.30 am, asking the authorities to press the military to surrender thousands of acres of land in Valikamam North area in Jaffna. A separate vigil was organised at the Palaly Ju

By M.R. Narayan Swamy Doctors are doing everything they can to keep Sri Lanka’s former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay alive, his wife said on Monday, as the man spent his ninth day in a Colombo hospital after launching an indefinite hunger strike. “He is extremely weak,” Manori Sallay told Jaffna Monitor after visiting him. “All the doctors are going all out to keep him alive.” The former head of the State Intelligence Service (SIS), who was arrested in February on charges of conspiring wit

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — The chairman of the Valikamam North Pradeshiya Sabha has written to the military demanding a halt to the construction of a hospital on privately owned land in the Vasavilan area, warning that the council will take legal action if work continues beyond June 16. In a letter dated June 9 to the Jaffna District military commander, Maj. Gen. K.J.N.M.P.K. Nawarathna, the council chairman, S. Sugirthan, said the project was proceeding without the required legal authorization and de