ANKARA

The top Sri Lankan court on Friday stopped the government from acquiring land in the country's northern region dominated by ethnic Tamils, local media reported.

A three-judge Supreme Court bench issued an interim order suspending a government notification regarding the acquisition of nearly 6,000 acres (2,428 hectares) of land in the Northern province, the local Daily Mirror reported.

The government issued a notification in late March stating that lands in the districts of Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mannar, and Mullaitivu would be declared as "state land" if the owners did not claim them by June 28, 2025.

Former Tamil lawmaker M.A. Sumanthiran had challenged the government order.

Sri Lanka’s north bore the brunt of a 37-year-long civil war, which ended in May 2009.

The Sri Lankan civil war lasted from 1983 to 2009, during which the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fought for an independent Tamil state against the government, which was dominated by Sinhalese ethnicity.

In 2023, approximately 74% of the population was Buddhist, primarily ethnic Sinhalese. Hindus, primarily ethnic Tamils, constituted 11.2% of the population, with 9.7% Muslim and 7.6% Christian.

According to a 2011 UN Secretary-General report, there have been as many as 40,000 civilian deaths during the civil war.

*Writing by Aamir Latif