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.

For 359 Days, Easter Claims. In Court, None — The Pillayan Case

For 359 Days, Easter Claims. In Court, None — The Pillayan Case

Sri Lanka's government spent a year telling its people one story. When it appeared before a court, it told another. On April 8, 2025, the Criminal Investigation Department arrested Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan — widely known as Pillayan — at the TMVP headquarters in Batticaloa. Within two days, Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala stood in Parliament and declared that significant information had emerged linking Pillayan to the Easter Sunday bombings of April 21, 2019 — the worst terrorist
April 2026 OP-ED
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Our Reporter
Jaffna Student Dies Days After Securing Three A’s in A/L Examination

Jaffna Student Dies Days After Securing Three A’s in A/L Examination

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — April 4, 2026 — A 19-year-old student from Jaffna Hindu College who had recently emerged as one of the district’s top performers in Sri Lanka’s Advanced Level examination died on Saturday after several days in intensive care, hospital officials said. The student, Lavan Akshayan, a resident of Inuvil, had been admitted to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital about a week earlier with what was initially a wound infection. It later progressed to sepsis — a life-threatening condition in
April 2026 Monitor Memo
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Our Reporter
Tamil Leaders Raise Plantation Inequality in Talks With Canada

Tamil Leaders Raise Plantation Inequality in Talks With Canada

For generations, the Tamil communities of Sri Lanka’s central highlands have done much of the physical labour that keeps one of the country’s most prized export industries alive. They pick the tea. They tend the estates. And yet, by nearly every measure of human welfare — housing, land ownership, mortality — they remain among the most marginalised people in the country. That contradiction was the animating argument when Mano Ganesan, the leader of the Tamil Progressive Alliance and a member of
April 2026 Monitor Memo
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Our Reporter
Hoole Sued for Rs. 1 Billion Over Alleged Defamation

Hoole Sued for Rs. 1 Billion Over Alleged Defamation

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — March 30, 2026 — Tamil nationalist lawyer Kumaravadivel Guruparan has filed a Rs. 1 billion ($3 million) defamation lawsuit against former Election Commission member Ratnajeevan Hoole, alleging that statements published in an article damaged his professional reputation. The case was filed in the Jaffna District Court last Friday. The lawsuit arises from an article written by Mr. Hoole and published in the Colombo Telegraph on March 28, 2024. In the article, Mr. Hoole alleg
March 2026 Monitor Memo
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Our Reporter
Sumanthiran Invites Former LTTE Combatants, Citing ‘Highest Qualification’

Sumanthiran Invites Former LTTE Combatants, Citing ‘Highest Qualification’

KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka — March 30, 2026 — M. A. Sumanthiran, general secretary of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), said on Sunday that former combatants who had sacrificed their lives, education, and families for a political cause were the most qualified to join the party. Speaking at a meeting with former LTTE combatants in Kilinochchi, Mr. Sumanthiran said those who had “considered their lives insignificant” and were prepared to give their “life, body and soul” for a goal possessed th
March 2026 Monitor Memo
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Our Reporter
Excavation Begins at Kurukkalmadam Mass Grave Linked to 1990 LTTE Killings

Excavation Begins at Kurukkalmadam Mass Grave Linked to 1990 LTTE Killings

BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka — March 31, 2026 — Authorities have begun excavating a suspected mass grave in eastern Sri Lanka where the remains of more than 170 Muslim civilians — including pilgrims returning from Hajj — are believed to be buried, more than three decades after they were abducted and killed during the country’s civil war. The court-ordered excavation is underway at Kurukkalmadam, in the Kaluwanchikudy police division of Batticaloa district, under the supervision of a magistrate and wit
March 2026 Monitor Memo
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Our Reporter
Health Director Testifies Against Jaffna MP Archchuna in Defamation Case Over Drug Allegations

Health Director Testifies Against Jaffna MP Archchuna in Defamation Case Over Drug Allegations

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — March 28, 2026 — Ramanathan Archchuna, a Member of Parliament for the Jaffna Electoral District, is facing a defamation case filed by Dr. A. Ketheeswaran, Jaffna’s Regional Director of Health Services, who testified in court on Friday that allegations made against him by the lawmaker were false, damaging, and deeply personal. Appearing before the Point Pedro Magistrate’s Court, Dr. Ketheeswaran delivered nearly two hours of testimony, firmly rejecting claims made by Archchu
JM Exclusive March 2026
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Our Reporter
Sand Mafia Tractor Kills Policeman in Jaffna

Sand Mafia Tractor Kills Policeman in Jaffna

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — March 28, 2026 — A police sergeant was killed and another officer critically injured on Saturday morning after a tractor allegedly linked to illegal sand mining rammed into them in northern Sri Lanka, police said. The incident occurred near a temple in the Kerpeli area of Kodikamam on the Jaffna peninsula, after officers responded to a tip-off about unlawful sand excavation. According to police, two officers dispatched to the site attempted to intercept a tractor transporti
March 2026 Monitor Memo
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Our Reporter