Excavation in Mannar temporarily halted

Colombo (News1st): The excavation of the mass grave in Mannar was temporarily halted for a week due to urgent official duties. It is reported the excavations were halted due to the unavailability of certain officials during that time as they are scheduled to attend several urgent High Court proceedings. The team had been engaged in continuous excavation duties for the last 76 days. At this point, 141 complete human skeletons have been unearthed, 135 of these skeletons have been removed from the site and are kept at the Mannar Magistrate’s Court, under the authority of the chief investigating officer. Approximately 14 of the human remains have been recognized to be that of children. Several skeletal remains were discovered earlier this year at the proposed Sathosa construction site in the Emil Nagar area in Mannar. Senior Archaeologist Prof. Raj Somadeva of the Kelaniya University, who is participating in the investigation, had previously observed that the site had shown both the methodical placements of bodies as it is in a grave as well as the irregular positioning of skeletal remains.