Sri Lanka’s Counter Terrorism and Investigation Division (CTID) has summoned leading Tamil journalist and rights defender Kanapathipillai Kumanan to appear for an “inquiry” at its occupying Alampil sub-station in Mullaitivu on 17 August.

Six more human skeletons were uncovered on Wednesday at the Chemmani mass grave site in Jaffna, including the remains of infants, as the total number of bodies found continues to climb.

The total number of skeletal assemblages identified now stands at 147, with 140 fully exhumed.

Former Sri Lankan minister and Pivithuru Hela Urumaya leader Udaya Gammanpila has dismissed the ongoing forensic excavation of mass graves in Chemmani, Jaffna, as “pointless and a waste of money,” drawing outrage from families of the disappeared and Tamil rights advocates across the North-East.

“The North is war-ravaged so mass graves will appear anywhere,” Gammanpila, a Sinhala extremist leader, told the media. “Digging them up and commenting [on them] is pointless and a waste of money.”

On August 4, 2006, Sri Lankan security forces summarily executed 17 aid workers from the French NGO, Action la Contre Faim (ACF), in Muttur, Trincomalee. 

The killings, which have since been dubbed the 'Muttur massacre', took place at the organisation's compound where the ACF team was based as they provided humanitarian assistance to the survivors of the catastrophic tsunami in 2004.