Recent land concessions in Jaffna were authorised by previous government

Sri Lanka’s new president’s recent release of military occupied land in Jaffna had already been signed off by the previous president Mahinda Rajapaksa, suggest reports.

Photograph: Tamil Guardian

Affidavits handed out to land owners on Wednesday included photographs of the former president and former land minister Janaka Bandara Tennakoon.

The handover of the land had been signed by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa on January 6 2015, in what is thought to have been an attempt by the previous regime to gain Tamil votes.