Skeletal remains found at an alleged mass grave in the Tamil-dominated former warzone in Sri lanka will be sent overseas for DNA tests, a lawyer said on Saturday.
VS Niranjan, a lawyer at the Magistrate’s Court in Mannar, said that Magistrate M Alexrajah issued the order on Friday to send the remains of 88 skeletons found in 2013 at Thiruketheeswaran area. The site of the mass grave is located in Mannar in lanka’s Tamil-dominated North, a former war zone.
However, Judicial Medical Officer Dananjaya Waidyaratne, who had carried out the initial tests in 2013, said there was no need to send them overseas and could be tested in Sri lanka.
Police had told the court that the site was a graveyard previously and the remains found could be of people who died under natural circumstances. The police contention was challenged by several local organisations in a petition, saying a large number of people had disappeared during the war between the lTTE and the Government troops, and the remains could be of those who disappeared.