Batticaloa is a major city in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, and its former capital. It is the administrative capital of the Batticaloa District. The city is the seat of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka and is a major commercial centre. It is on the east coast, 111 kilometres (69 mi) south of Trincomalee, and is situated on an island. Pasikudah is a popular tourist destination situated 35 km (22 mi) northwest with beaches and flat year-round warm-water shallow-lagoons.
The Eastern Province is one of the nine provinces of Sri Lanka, the first level administrative division of the country. The provinces have existed since the 19th century but did not have any legal status until 1987 when the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka established provincial councils. Between 1988 and 2006 the province was temporarily merged with the Northern Province to form the North Eastern Province. The capital of the province is Trincomalee.
Ampara District is one of the 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the second-level administrative divisions of the country. The district is administered by a District Secretariat headed by a District Secretary appointed by the central government of Sri Lanka. The capital of the district is the town of Ampara. The district was carved out of the southern part of Batticaloa District in April 1961.
The 1958 anti-Tamil pogrom and riots in Ceylon, also known as the 58 riots, refer to the first island-wide ethnic riots and pogrom to target the minority Tamils in the Dominion of Ceylon after it became an independent dominion from Britain in 1948. The riots lasted from 22 May until 29 May 1958 although sporadic disturbances happened even after the declaration of emergency on 27 May 1958. The estimates of the murders range, based on recovered body count, from 158 to 1,500. Although most of the victims were Tamils, Sinhalese and their property were also affected by retaliatory attacks by Tamil mobs throughout the Batticaloa and Jaffna districts. As the first full-scale race riot in the country in over forty years, the events of 1958 shattered the trust the communities had in one another and led to further polarisation.
The Eastern University massacre was the arrest and subsequent mass murder of 158 minority Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who had taken refuge in the Eastern University campus close to the city Batticaloa on September 5, 1990. A witness identified the Sri Lankan Army personnel as the perpetrator. The event is part of what is known amongst Sri Lankan Tamils as Black September series of civilian massacres. The Sri Lankan government eventually established a presidential commission of inquiry. The inquiry found evidence of illegal abduction and mass murders. It also named the responsible parties, but there is currently no evidence of any judicial follow up to the inquiry.
Tamil Eelam is a proposed independent state that many Tamils in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora aspire to create in the north and east of Sri Lanka. The name is derived from the ancient Tamil name for Sri Lanka, Eelam. Tamil Eelam, although encompassing the traditional homelands of Sri Lankan Tamils, does not have official status or recognition by world states. Large sections of the North-East were under de facto control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for most of the 1990s–2000s during the Sri Lankan Civil War.
Batticaloa International Airport, formerly known as Batticaloa Airport, is an international airport serving eastern Sri Lanka. It is also a military airbase known as Sri Lanka Air Force Batticaloa or SLAF Batticaloa. The airport is located in the village of Puthunagar on the island of Thimilathiu, 1 nautical mile south-west of the city of Batticaloa. It resides at an elevation of 3 m (10 ft) and has one runway designated 06/24 with a bitumen surface measuring 1,560 by 46 metres.
Batticaloa District is one of the 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the second level administrative division of the country. The district is administered by a District Secretariat headed by a District Secretary appointed by the central government of Sri Lanka. The capital of the district is the city of Batticaloa. Ampara District was carved out of the southern part of Batticaloa District in April 1961.
Valaichchenai is a town in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. It could also be spelled as Valaichenai or Valachchenai. The world-famous Pasikudah Beach is located about 3 km east of Valaichenai along the Indian Ocean. Pasikudah beach is famous for shallow and calm sea water.
Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, served as Chief Minister of the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. He is also the leader of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), a political party in Sri Lanka. A former armed fighter of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam organization, Chandrakanthan broke away from the Tamil Tigers along with Karuna Amman in April 2004, and became the deputy leader of the breakaway faction, renamed as the TMVP.
Batticaloa Electoral District is one of the 22 multi-member electoral districts of Sri Lanka created by the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka. The district is conterminous with the administrative district of Batticaloa in the Eastern province. The district currently elects 5 of the 225 members of the Sri Lankan Parliament and had 344,750 registered electors in 2010.
Upaar Lagoon is an estuarine lagoon in Batticaloa District, eastern Sri Lanka.
Batticaloa Lagoon is a very large estuarine lagoon in Batticaloa District, eastern Sri Lanka. The city of Batticaloa is located on land between the lagoon and the Indian Ocean.Batticaloa district is flourished with three lagoons, such Batticaloa lagoon, Valaichchenai Lagoon and Vakari Lagoon. Among them, Batticaloa lagoon is the largest lagoon in Batticaloa District. Batticaloa lagoon is a long and narrow lagoon situated in the east coast of Sri Lanka with the total area of approximately 11,500 ha of water.
The Batticaloa Fort was built by the Portuguese in 1628 and was captured by the Dutch on 18 May 1638. From 1795, the fort was used by the British.
Kallady Bridge is a road bridge in eastern Sri Lanka. It crosses the Batticaloa Lagoon at Batticaloa. The bridge is part of the A4 Colombo-Batticaloa highway.
Oddamavadi Bridge is a road bridge in Oddamavadi, Sri Lanka a length of 250 meters. It crosses the Valaichchenai Lagoon at Batticaloa. The bridge is part of the A15 Batticaloa-Trincomallee highway. It comprises 2 bridges, a British Ceylon era truss bridge which is used as road-rail bridge, and a newly built bridge carrying 2 lanes of highway. The new two lane bridge is 250 m (820 ft) long and 10.5 m (34 ft) wide. The new Oddamavadi bridge was built with financial assistance of the Spanish Government and the World Bank.
Manmunai Bridge is a road bridge in Batticaloa District, Sri Lanka. It crosses the Batticaloa Lagoon and connects Western and Eastern shore of the Batticaloa lagoon.
Mahamood Lebbe Alim Mohamed Hizbullah is a Sri Lankan politician and state minister. He is one of the presidential candidates running in the 2019 Presidential Elections.
Oddamavadi or Oddamavady is a town in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. Twelve villages are located in Oddamavadi which administered under the Koralai Pattu West Divisional Secretariat
