October 2026

KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka — Six community organizations in Uruthirapuram have jointly appealed to a senior police official for a fresh investigation into the death of Samarazhagi, a teenage girl whose death last week has shaken the village and prompted allegations that she had been threatened and sexually pressured by a young man living nearby. In a letter dated Oct. 5 and addressed to the Deputy Inspector General of Police for the Kilinochchi Division, the organizations said they were dissatisfie

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Police on Monday handed over to a Jaffna court a bust of Thileepan, the Tamil Tiger political leader, that officers removed from his memorial eight days earlier, as investigators continued trying to answer a question that has hung over the controversy: Who put it there? No Tamil political party or group has publicly claimed responsibility for installing the bust at the memorial near the Nallur Kandaswamy Temple. The Tamil National People’s Front, which controlled the main c

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A former Tamil Tiger fighter has told a Sri Lankan court that military intelligence officers detained him at an army camp after the civil war and instructed him to make telephone calls to the journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda, who was abducted and disappeared months later. Sumathipala Suresh Kumar, also known as Murali, gave testimony before the Homagama High Court, where seven Army intelligence officers are on trial over an earlier abduction of Mr. Eknaligoda in August 2009.

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — The Sangupiddy Bridge, which carries the A32 highway across the Jaffna Lagoon and links the Jaffna Peninsula with Mannar, will be closed to all traffic for five days from Wednesday morning for emergency repairs, the Road Development Authority said. The bridge will close at 8 a.m. on Oct. 7 and reopen at 8 a.m. on Oct. 12, according to a notice issued by the authority's Northern Province office in Vavuniya. All vehicles will be barred from the bridge during the repairs, the

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A Sri Lankan migrant worker sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia over a Facebook comment deemed insulting to the Prophet Muhammad has been attacked by other inmates and suffered head injuries, according to an activist assisting his family. Sivarasa Anojan, a Tamil from Natpiddimunai, near Kalmunai in Sri Lanka's Eastern Province, was sentenced to death last month after a Saudi appeals court replaced an earlier five-year prison term. The Sri Lankan government has since begun d