🚨 EXCLUSIVE: Chemmani archaeologist’s report contradicted by its own evidence Tamil Guardian has obtained the interim report on the Chemmani mass grave. It says the site more closely resembles “formal burial practices” than a clandestine grave, and raises the possibility of an epidemic or natural disaster. It does not say how almost 600 people came to be buried there. It holds up Skeleton 25 as a “relatively formal burial” without noting that the remains are of a girl aged four to five, found with a school bag and a toy. It presents a seated skeleton labelled 227 as being in a “meditation posture”. That skeleton was reported in September 2025 to have been found with its hands bound and its skull fractured. The report says skull orientation shows no uniform pattern, while its own chart shows 72% facing north-west. In September 2025, Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Commission found a “reasonable likelihood” that the burials were the result of extrajudicial killings.

🚨 Sri Lankan police question parents of Tamil child who asked for Chemmani justice A boy at a preschool sports day in Vadamarachchi East dressed as a child buried at Chemmani, carrying a placard that read: “many years ago, while I was drinking milk at my mother’s breast, they buried me. Will I get justice?” After footage of the costume spread on social media, Sri Lankan police at Maruthankerny station called in the boy’s parents and his preschool teacher for questioning.

Protests have spread across the Tamil homeland since Sri Lankan police removed Lt Col Thileepan's statue from his memorial at Nallur on Sunday, with demonstrations held in districts across the North-East and Tamil politicians, civil society activists, religious figures, students and members of the public calling for the statue to be reinstated. Read more on our website, tamilguardian.com instagr.am/p/Dd8256aDT9R/

🚨 Navy and police given seats on new fisheries committees across the North-East Sri Lanka has set up district committees on illegal fishing across 15 fisheries districts, seven of them along the North-East coast, drawing in the defence ministry, the navy, the coast guard and the police. The review was chaired at parliament by fisheries minister Ramalingam Chandrasekar and deputy defence minister Major General Aruna Jayasekara, with the defence secretary and the navy commander attending. Neither ministry has said what powers the committees hold, who chairs them at district level, or whether fishermen's organisations are represented on them. Fishermen in the North-East have accused the navy of selective enforcement — moving against local Tamil fishermen while Indian bottom trawlers work northern waters. The navy has arrested Tamil fishermen for illegal fishing off Jaffna, been accused of covertly surveying fishing land at Chundikkulam, and still holds the fishing settlements of Myliddy inside a High Security Zone, where landowners have protested weekly for 23 weeks with no reply.