JAFFNA: Police investigating an alleged mass grave on Mandaitivu, an island off the Jaffna Peninsula, told a court on Tuesday that the Sri Lankan Army had not answered their request for information about its presence on the island in 1990. Families say dozens of young Tamil men were detained by soldiers on Mandaitivu that year and never seen again.
The police had asked the army for records showing whether it maintained a camp at the site named in the complaint, and for the names of officers stationed there at the time, so that statements could be recorded from them. Officers from the Jaffna District Crime Prevention Police told the Kayts Magistrate’s Court that the report had not arrived and that the investigation could not move forward without it. They presented the evidence gathered so far and asked for more time.
Lawyers for the families of the disappeared urged the court to speed up the inquiry and asked that further evidence be collected and submitted without delay. Magistrate Aneeba Rajeev adjourned the case to 5 January 2027.
The case has been before the court since 17 September 2025 and has been adjourned repeatedly. No excavation has taken place. Families of the missing have raised concern that the repeated requests for more time are dragging out an inquiry they have waited decades for.
Those in court on Tuesday included Poorni Marianayagam, a lawyer for the Office on Missing Persons; T. Selvakumar, the office’s regional coordinator; and two members of the Velanai Pradeshiya Sabha, Swaminathan Prahalathan, who is also president of the Islands Development Association, and Anusiya Jeyakanth.
The complaint was lodged at the Kayts police station on 4 September 2025 by Stephan Marilda, 81, whose son was among those taken, and Mr. Prahalathan. They asked for wells on the island to be excavated. Residents say the bodies of the missing men were thrown into those wells, which were later sealed.
The allegations relate to an army offensive in the islands in August and September 1990, when troops were trying to relieve the army garrison at the Dutch fort in Jaffna, then under siege by the LTTE. Families say the military told them to shelter in churches, temples and mosques in Mandaitivu and the neighbouring villages of Allaipiddy and Mankumban, and that soldiers then took young men away from those places.
A 2005 report by the North-East Secretariat on Human Rights, a body that operated from LTTE-controlled territory, said soldiers detained hundreds of young men from the three villages between 23 August and 25 September 1990. Most were released within about 10 days. At least 70 never returned. In 2019, S. Sritharan, a Member of Parliament, told the Office on Missing Persons that more than 100 people from the three villages may be buried in a mass grave on Mandaitivu.
In 2025, before the complaint was filed, Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara dismissed the allegations as hearsay, saying no police complaint had been made and no court order issued.
No excavation or forensic examination has yet been carried out at the site, and nothing presented in court so far has shown that it contains human remains. The next hearing is on 5 January 2027.
