Sri Lanka's missing thousands: one woman's six-year fight to find her husband

When journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda went missing, police told wife Sandhya ‘getting abducted was fashionable’ and he would soon return. More than 90 court appearances and a change in government later, she is still searching

Sandhya Eknaligoda stands before an image of her husband, missing Sri Lankan cartoonist and journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda in 2012. Photograph: Ishara S.kodikara/AFP/Getty Images

Tamil women hold portraits of their missing relatives during a protest in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, in November 2013 during a visit by British PM David Cameron. Photograph: Eranga Jayawardena/AP

Amantha Perera in Colombo-Friday 29 January 2016

Sandhya Eknaligoda has had a date at court in Homogoma, Sri Lanka, every month for the past six years.

The 52-year-old counts the number of appearances at more than 90 and they are aimed at securing one thing – finding her husband.

Journalist and cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda disappeared without a trace on 24 January 2010 after a mysterious telephone call led him to an equally mysterious meeting.

Since then not a word has been heard from Prageeth, who was 50 when he disappeared, not even from third parties. He worked for website Lankae News.

The Eknaligoda case is one among tens of thousands of missing persons cases that the new government of Maithripala Sirisena has pledged to resolve. A presidential commission has already recorded more than 20,000 such cases, including more than 5,000 security services members.

“I will go anywhere, any time to get information on Prageeth,” says Sandhya.

And she has – from court hearings in Colombo to sessions of the UN human rights council in Geneva. It is a marathon endeavour to seek justice for her husband. But it has not endeared her to some.

Last week, as she was leaving court, she was accosted and allegedly threatened by a prominent monk.

The monk, Galagodatte Gnanasara, heads the nationalist movement Bodu Bala Sena (Buddhist Power Force). He had come to court with several other monks to offer to be remanded in place of six security personnel taken into custody over the abduction of Eknaligoda.

He accused Sandhya of tarnishing the name of the armed forces by alleging that her husband had evidence of use of chemical weapons.

Such brickbats aside, Eknaligoda told the Guardian that in the past year, since president Sirisena and his prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe took office, investigations into her husband’s abduction have made progress. The investigations have revealed links to the military and a camp in the north east where the journalist is suspected to have been transported.

It is a far cry from six years back, when she first complained to police. “I was told that getting abducted was fashionable and that my husband would soon return. They asked me to go home and wait.”

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