Government denies land grab accusations

Government officials have denied allegations of land seizures by security forces, after protests by the TNA and other Tamil political groups in the North-East.

The Government Agent of Kilinochchi, Roopavathi Ketheeswaran said there was no truth in the allegations.

“There are no such things happening here. Most of such claimed lands were earlier occupied by the LTTE and the military has a safety assurance process. Those will be handed back to the rightful owners shortly,” she told The Nation.

The TNA is currently collecting details and statistics of lands that have been forcibly taken from Tamil residents by security forces.

“This is a very sensitive issue. There are thousands of people who are unable to return to their lands because they have been taken over by the security forces,” said Mavai Senathirajah of the TNA.

The TNA warned it will write to the UN Human Rights Council about the issue and it will hold a protest near Murugandi Temple in the Vanni on Monday.

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button