.jpeg)
Bullets buried in the grounds of Mandaitivu, where construction of the proposed Jaffna International Cricket Stadium is underway, were exhumed this week with the permission of the Kayts court.
The discovery was first made last Saturday when workers uncovered a quantity of ammunition at the site. The occupying Sri Lankan police from Kayts were notified and subsequently conducted an inspection. Following this, the police sought authorisation from the Kayts Neethawan Court to exhume the bullets. Permission was granted and the ammunition was recovered this week.
.jpeg)
The find comes just weeks after Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake visited Mandaitivu to promote the stadium project, which has drawn criticism over its environmental implications. The stadium is planned on land within a lagoon and mangrove reserve, with financial backing expected from the Indian government. Environmentalists have warned that clearing this ecologically fragile area will devastate biodiversity, undermine flood defences, and destroy vital mangrove ecosystems.
Mandaitivu itself also carries a darker history. In 2019, Tamil parliamentarian S. Sritharan told Sri Lanka’s Office on Missing Persons that more than 100 victims of a 1990 disappearance may be buried in a mass grave on Mandaitivu. Hundreds of Tamil youth were reported missing from Mandaitivu, Allaipaddy and Mankumban between August and September 1990, during a Sri Lankan military offensive
