Over 530 bodies identified in Chemmani burial site

Two headless human skeletons were uncovered over a forty-eight-hour period at the Chemmani burial site in Jaffna, pushing the total number of identified bodies to 539 by Tuesday.

The remains were part of fifteen newly located sets of bones at the location, which is recognised as the largest recorded mass grave in Sri Lanka. Archaeologist Professor Raj Somadeva and Judicial Medical Officer Doctor Selliah Piranavan are leading the exhumation team, which retrieved 524 distinct sets of remains so far.

The finding of two skeletons beyond the original perimeter suggests the burial zone covers a larger area than initially mapped. Ranitha Gnanarajah, the attorney monitoring the site on behalf of the families of missing individuals, stated that the remains of five infants were identified during Tuesday's operations.

The recent findings occurred just as the total body count crossed 500 on the one-hundredth day of the recovery operation. Court-ordered excavations and forensic investigations remain ongoing at the site.