Sri Lanka Army said over 69,000 acres of land that was used by the Army in the North East following the end of the war had been released since 2009.
The Army said since 18th May 2009, the Army has used 84523.84 acres of land in the North and East and 69754.59 acres of that land had been released in a manner that would not be harmful to the national security.
According to a senior military official this extent of private and state land had been released until 25th November 2018.
Since 2009, the military has occupied 25202.88 acres of land from Jaffna, 25948.49 acres in Kilinochchi, 11911.18 acres in Mullaitivu, 2302.30 acres in Mannar, 7331.47 acres in Vavuniya, 1859.65 acres in Trincomalee, 1592.29 acres in Batticaloa, and 8375.58 acres in Ampara.
Among the released lands are 22496.09 acres in Jaffna district, 24396.29 acres in Kilinochchi, 7126.69 acres in Mullaitivu, 885.74 acres in Mannar, 6250.24 acres in Vavuniya, 98.18 acres in Trincomalee, 1040.54 acres in Batticaloa, and 7460.82 acres in Ampara.
Security Forces Headquarters-Jaffna (SFHQ-J) in Jaffna is scheduled to release another 263.55 acres of land before 31 December in a manner that will not be a threat to the national security, according to military sources.
Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena has instructed the relevant authorities to sort out the problems and complete the process to release all the occupied lands before 31 December.
Courtesy: Colombo Page
