Mullaitivu Magistrate Court released two Tamil farmers from Kurunthurmalai who were arrested for farming, following a complaint by a Sinhala Buddhist monk alleging damage to an “archaeological” site.

At the hearing yesterday, the government lawyer had admitted that there is not an official government gazette which declares that the contested land belongs to Sri Lanka's Department of Archaeology. As a result, the case was dismissed and the farmers were released.

Excavation work at the Chemmani-Sindubathi burial site in Jaffna’s Nallur division has led to the recovery of human remains believed to belong to an infant under the age of one, fuelling calls for international oversight into excavating mass graves on the island.

Students at the University of Jaffna gathered on Thursday to mark the 51st anniversary of the martyrdom of Ponnuthurai Sivakumaran, recognized as the first martyr of the Tamil liberation struggle.

Today marks 51 years since the death of Ponnuthurai Sivakumaran, the first Tamil to die in the liberation struggle. 

Sivakumaran was a member of the Tamil Manavar Peravai (or Tamil Student Federation, TSF) and a leading militant in the early armed Tamil struggle. With decades of Sri Lankan state repression and deadly anti-Tamil pogroms already having taken place, Tamil militant movements began to form. Sivakumaran was involved in assassination attempts on both Somaweera Chandrasiri and Alfred Duraiappah.