Our Reporter

Our Reporter

‘Our Reporter’ is a collective byline representing a team of Jaffna- and Sri Lanka-based journalists and editorial staff who contribute to Jaffna Monitor.

Seven Years, 23,270 Charges: Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday Bombings Trial Reaches Judgment

Seven Years, 23,270 Charges: Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday Bombings Trial Reaches Judgment

COLOMBO: A special three-judge High Court in Colombo is scheduled to deliver its verdict on Tuesday, September 22, in the main trial over the Easter Sunday bombings of April 21, 2019, when suicide attackers struck three churches, three luxury hotels and a guesthouse, killing about 270 people and wounding more than 500. The Attorney General has brought more than 23,270 charges against the 24 defendants, including conspiring to carry out and aiding and abetting the attacks. It is the largest numb
JM Exclusive September 2026
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Our Reporter
Canada Invites 2,000 Workers Already in the Country to Apply for Permanent Residence

Canada Invites 2,000 Workers Already in the Country to Apply for Permanent Residence

Canada invited 2,000 foreign workers already living in the country to apply for permanent residence on Sept. 15, continuing a run of draws that favour candidates with Canadian work experience over applicants abroad. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada issued the invitations under the Canadian Experience Class, one of the programs run through the Express Entry system. The cutoff was 519 points on the department's Comprehensive Ranking System, down from 521 in the previous round on Sept.
September 2026
Our Reporter

Our Reporter
Through a Surgeon’s Lens, Four Decades of a Changing Sri Lanka

Through a Surgeon’s Lens, Four Decades of a Changing Sri Lanka

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — In November 1994, a surgeon from Colombo boarded a Red Cross ship at Trincomalee and sailed overnight to the jetty at Point Pedro, into territory held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. He had been asked to examine final-year medical students at the University of Jaffna, and he stayed two weeks. The photographs he brought back form one section of an exhibition that opens in Colombo on Friday. 'Beyond the Scalpel' runs from Sept. 25 to 27 at the auditorium of the Colle
September 2026 Medical
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Our Reporter
The Anojan They Knew: Friends Recall a Life Before the Saudi Death-Sentence Case
Sivarasa Anojan

The Anojan They Knew: Friends Recall a Life Before the Saudi Death-Sentence Case

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Before Sivarasa Anojan became the Sri Lankan worker at the center of a death-sentence case in Saudi Arabia, his university friends knew him as a fast bowler, an impulsive batsman and a quick-tempered young man who shared his food when money was short. As the case draws appeals for diplomatic intervention and feeds an increasingly charged debate in Sri Lanka, two of those friends have posted public accounts of the man they knew before a Facebook comment led to his prosecutio
JM Exclusive September 2026
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Our Reporter
A Little Rain, and Jaffna Goes Dark Again

A Little Rain, and Jaffna Goes Dark Again

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Electricity failed across Jaffna at about 5 a.m. on Sunday after a brief spell of rain before dawn. Supply was not restored until about 12.30 p.m., roughly seven and a half hours later. A consumer in Kokuvil was notified of the interruption at 7:15 a.m., more than two hours after the power went out. The text message said supply had been interrupted from 6:10 a.m. for "breakdown restoration" and would not be restored before noon. Residents said the power had gone out more tha
September 2026
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Our Reporter
Blessed Water From the Sky — and Questions Over Who Paid

Blessed Water From the Sky — and Questions Over Who Paid

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Buddhist monks aboard a Sri Lanka Air Force transport plane released blessed water over parts of the country on Sunday in a religious appeal for rain, an operation the service publicized on its social media accounts as a symbolic act of compassion. Photographs posted by the Air Force showed the monks aboard a Y-12 aircraft. The service said the flight was intended to carry prayers for rain, relief and renewal for people, animals and the environment. No publicly available a
September 2026
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Our Reporter
Shritharan: Man Who Insulted Shiva Lingam Is Free, Anojan Faces Death

Shritharan: Man Who Insulted Shiva Lingam Is Free, Anojan Faces Death

KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka- Sivagnanam Shritharan, a senior lawmaker from Sri Lanka’s main Tamil political party, urged the government on Saturday to make an urgent effort to save Sivarasa Anojan, a Sri Lankan Tamil worker reportedly sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia over a Facebook comment about the Prophet Muhammad. Mr. Shritharan said the comment that landed Mr. Anojan in trouble had been written in response to another Sri Lankan social media user who, according to him, had first made a derogat
September 2026
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Our Reporter
Sri Lankan Lawmaker Asks Modi to Intervene in Saudi Death Sentence Case

Sri Lankan Lawmaker Asks Modi to Intervene in Saudi Death Sentence Case

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — An opposition lawmaker has asked President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to seek Prime Minister Narendra Modi's personal intervention with Saudi Arabia's crown prince on behalf of a Sri Lankan Tamil man whose prison sentence in the kingdom has reportedly been converted into a death sentence. The lawmaker, Mano Ganesan, who leads the Tamil Progressive Alliance, wrote on X on Saturday that Mr. Dissanayake should bring the case of Sivarasa Anojan to Mr. Modi's urgent attention and
September 2026
Our Reporter

Our Reporter