Remains of four more individuals were found at the Mannar mass grave site bringing the total  number of skeletons found to 36, the BBC reports. In December last year,  construction workers discovered human remains when they were excavating at Tiruketheesvaran in the Mannar District.

Dr.Dananjaya Vaidyaratne, the specialist Judicial Medical Officer in charge of the excavation revealed that human bodies were stacked in several layers and some of the bodies had been disturbed due to the road construction activities. The JMO observed that no items of clothing had been discovered during the excavations, the BBC report said.

This is the first mass grave site discovered in the Northern Province since the end of the war. Earlier last year construction workers stumbled on another mass grave in Matale in central Sri Lanka. At least 154 people had been buried in the grave, a hotbed of the JVP between 1987 and 1990. Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the commanding officer in charge of the Matale District during the JVP insurgency period. Later the government sent the skeletons found from the Matale site to China for forensic testing including bone dating.

The findings of this investigation are yet to be made public.