June 2026


Defenders of Bharatanatyam Record Say Costs Were Disclosed and Agreed in Writing

Defenders of Bharatanatyam Record Say Costs Were Disclosed and Agreed in Writing

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The organizers of a Bharatanatyam performance that set a Guinness World Record in the Sri Lankan capital recently have found defenders among people familiar with how the event was arranged, who say that the costs borne by participants and the process for obtaining official certificates were spelled out well in advance and accepted in writing. The pushback follows criticism from social activist Rajkumar Rajeevkanth, as well as several parents and activists, who argued in a s


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CID Names Pillayan a Suspect in 2008 Killings as Easter Case Remains Uncharged

CID Names Pillayan a Suspect in 2008 Killings as Easter Case Remains Uncharged

BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka — The Criminal Investigation Department told a magistrate’s court in eastern Sri Lanka on Monday that Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, the former Eastern Province chief minister widely known as Pillayan, is one of three suspects in a string of shootings that left five people dead in Batticaloa District in 2008. According to details presented before Batticaloa Magistrate Annathurai Darshini, investigators are examining a series of fatal shootings carried out in 2008, several


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Tamils Rally in Jaffna for Return of Land Held by Military for 36 Years

Tamils Rally in Jaffna for Return of Land Held by Military for 36 Years

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


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Doctors Fight to Keep Suresh Sallay Alive, Wife Says

Doctors Fight to Keep Suresh Sallay Alive, Wife Says

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


M.R. Narayan Swamy

M.R. Narayan Swamy

Activist Questions Funding and Credit for Bharatanatyam World Record in Colombo

Activist Questions Funding and Credit for Bharatanatyam World Record in Colombo

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A social activist has challenged the way credit was assigned for a Bharatanatyam performance that set a Guinness World Record in Colombo over the weekend, arguing that the thousands of students and teachers central to the achievement were overlooked while recognition went to the event's private organizers and a single instructor. The activist, Rajkumar Rajeevkanth, laid out his objections in a series of social media posts on Monday, a day after more than 5,000 dancers perfo


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Military Told to Stop Hospital Construction on Private Land in Vasavilan
S. Sugirthan

Military Told to Stop Hospital Construction on Private Land in Vasavilan

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


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Valikamam North Tamils Mark 36th Anniversary of Displacement With Protest
Displaced residents of Valikamam North display title deeds to their ancestral lands during an earlier protest, demanding the return of properties that remain under military control decades after their displacement.

Valikamam North Tamils Mark 36th Anniversary of Displacement With Protest

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Tamil residents displaced from the Valikamam North region more than three decades ago were expected to march on the Jaffna District Secretariat on Monday to demand the return of ancestral land that remains under military control, 17 years after the end of Sri Lanka's civil war. The protest, organized by the Mayiliddy Resettlement Development Committee, marks the anniversary of the displacement, which began on June 15, 1990, when residents were ordered from their homes as fig


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CID Refuses Daily Lawyer Visits for Hospitalized Ex-Spy Chief

CID Refuses Daily Lawyer Visits for Hospitalized Ex-Spy Chief

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department has refused to allow daily visits by the lawyer of Major General (Retired) Suresh Sallay, the former director of the State Intelligence Service, who is being treated in hospital after a hunger strike in detention, according to a letter from the department obtained by Jaffna Monitor. In the letter, dated June 13 and signed by Senior Superintendent of Police Shani Abeysekara, the CID director, the agency told Sallay’s wife that her husband’s


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