25April2024

: Post 12 October 2018

By Kithsiri Wijesinghe

Workers digging pits along a highway in northern Sri Lanka have stumbled upon suspected human skeletal remains while ongoing excavations at a mass grave have unearthed at least 175 bodies.

A Ceylon Electricity Board team digging to erect power distribution poles along the Palali – Atchuveli road on Thursday (11) have found the bones.

Police confirming the find say that the site have been provided with security.

“The magistrate has also been informed,” an officer told JDS under condition of anonymity.

A group of Indian observers look on as the Lead Forensic Officer Dr Saminda Rajapaksha explains the excavation procedures - October 11, 2018 , Mannar

Indian observers

Meanwhile, the forensic experts have unearthed at least 175 complete human skeletons at Mannar mass grave as a group of Indian academics and lawyers have also visited the site on Wednesday.

At least 14 of them belong to children.

Five professors and advocates from Tamil Nadu based Peoples Watch human rights organisation, visited to observe the excavations with the permission of Mannar Magistrate T Saravanaraj, said Lead Forensic Officer Saminda Rajapaksha.

Professor Ramu Manivannan, head of Department of Politics and Public Administration of the University of Madras was among the visitors.

Experts investigating the SATHOSA mass grave in Mannar plan to send samples of the skeletal remains to a research lab in the USA to determine their time of burial.

“We expect the court authorisation within the next two weeks,” Dr Saminda Rajapaksha told JDS.☐

Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka

JDS is the Sri Lankan partner organization of international media rights group, Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The launching of this website was made possible by the EU’s European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), of which Reporters Without Borders is a beneficiary.

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