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India Signals Preference for Building on Existing Constitution as Tamil Alliance Seeks Political Progress

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — India has privately indicated that Sri Lanka should exercise caution before abandoning its existing constitutional framework in favour of drafting an entirely new Constitution, according to leaders who attended a meeting Tuesday between the country’s newly formed alliance of six Tamil-speaking political parties and Indian High Commissioner Santosh Jha. Following the discussions, several participants told Jaffna Monitor that constitutional reform featured prominently during

JM Exclusive August 2026

Our Reporter

Aug 5, 2026 — 3 min read

Government Seeks Royal Pardon for Anojan After Saudi Sentence

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka is pursuing both legal and diplomatic efforts to assist Sivarasa Anojan, the Sri Lankan migrant worker sentenced by a Saudi Arabian court over a Facebook comment deemed insulting to the Prophet Muhammad, with officials confirming that discussions are underway on filing an appeal while seeking clemency from the Saudi government. Cabinet spokesman and Minister of Health and Mass Media Nalinda Jayatissa said Tuesday that the government was consulting Anojan's family a

Exclusive August 2026

Our Reporter

Aug 4, 2026 — 2 min read

India’s Foreign Secretary to Visit Sri Lanka Amid Growing Tamil Political Coordination

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — India's Foreign Secretary, Vikram Misri, is expected to arrive in Sri Lanka next week for an official visit, as Tamil-speaking political parties seek to strengthen coordination ahead of renewed engagement with New Delhi, according to people familiar with the plans. Mr. Misri is expected to meet Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister and other senior government officials, as well as Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa and representatives of Tamil nationalist and up-country Tamil politi

Exclusive August 2026

Our Reporter

Aug 1, 2026 — 1 min read

The Easter Bombings: Anatomy of a State Failure

By Aruliniyan Mahalingam At 8:27 on the morning of April 21, 2019, a foreign intelligence service sent one last message to the head of Sri Lanka’s State Intelligence Service. The bombers would probably move between six and ten that morning, it said, and one of their targets was a Methodist church in Colombo. Surveillance teams were being deployed. The police, it added, had already been warned. The first explosions came shortly before nine, less than twenty minutes later. Over the course of th

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Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aug 1, 2026 — 8 min read

Former Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Sentenced to Death Over Easter Sunday Bombings

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka's former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando was sentenced to death on Friday after a special three-judge trial court found him guilty of failing to act on intelligence warnings ahead of the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, becoming the second senior official to receive the death penalty in the landmark case. The ruling by the Colombo Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar came hours after the same court sentenced former Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara to de

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Our Reporter

Jul 31, 2026 — 1 min read

Former Sri Lankan Police Chief Sentenced to Death Over Easter Sunday Bombings

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s former police chief was sentenced to death on Friday for failing to stop the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, after a court found he had sat on a run of intelligence warnings that named the bombers and, at the end, the day they would strike. The three judges of the Colombo Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar, Priyantha Liyanage, Viraj Weerasuriya, and Thilakaratne Bandara, convicted Pujith Jayasundara, who was Inspector General of Police at the time of the attacks, of

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Our Reporter

Jul 31, 2026 — 4 min read

Blinded in War, a Former LTTE Fighter Now Guides Others in Sri Lanka’s North

By M.R. Narayan Swamy At 37, Vijayalathan leads an active life that appears, in many ways, no different from that of others in Sri Lanka. But he is completely blind, the result of a severe injury he sustained as a Tamil Tiger guerrilla in the final stages of the war. Yet he stands as a rare example of someone who has overcome profound adversity and now helps lead a nongovernmental organization working to rebuild the lives of those affected by the separatist conflict that ended in 2009. “I don

April 2026 Exclusive

M.R. Narayan Swamy

Apr 21, 2026 — 4 min read

Invited, Then Turned Away: The 11-Hour Wait That Preceded IRIS Dena’s Sinking.

COLOMBO, March 6 — In the final days before it was destroyed by a United States submarine in the Indian Ocean, the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena was sailing toward Sri Lanka in response to what sources say was a diplomatic invitation extended weeks earlier by Sri Lankan authorities during a multinational naval gathering in India. The IRIS Dena, a domestically built Moudge-class frigate commissioned into the Iranian Navy in 2021, was part of the country’s Southern Fleet. The vessel was torpedoed so

Exclusive March 2026

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Mar 6, 2026 — 4 min read