Saaratha Iruthayanathar was three years old when she last saw her father leaving to get groceries, during the Sri Lankan civil war.

To this day, she still does not know whether he is dead or alive.

While travelling by boat to the Jaffna mainland in November 1990 — with a group of 12 people — her father was arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy.

"The grief of not knowing what happened to him is beyond words," Ms Iruthayanathar told the ABC.

Her father went missing during the war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, more commonly known as the Tamil Tigers.

They were fighting to create an independent state in the north and east of the country before they were defeated by government forces in 2009.

The navy said her father was alive when they returned hi

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