The Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena on Thursday called some media organisations and NGOs "traitorous forces". 

Addressing an event for the armed forces, Mr Sirisena was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying, "national security should be maintained without belittling it". 

“Some factions act without understanding this. Sometimes, it appears, some media organisations, journalists, NGOs and various traitorous forces do this,” he added. 

Sri Lanka will sell 80 percent of the $1.5 billion Hambantota port to a Chinese firm, reports Reuters.

Speaking at the country’s Foreign Correspondents Association on Thursday, Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said,

“The value will be more than the $1billion and the deal will be signed around the second week of November. For somebody like the Chinese, it is the silk route transit point.”

Buddhist monks from India visited Jaffna this week to pray for the two Tamil university students shot dead by Sri Lankan police last Thursday. 

Conducted a peaceful march outside the grounds of the university, the monks called for the violence to cease. 

Students in Tamil Nadu this week held a protest demonstrating against the killing of two Jaffna university students last Thursday. 

The protest, which was held in Salem outside the District Collector's office, was organised by the Tamil Nadu Students Youths Federation and called for those responsible to face justice. 

A human skeleton was found by locals in Uruthirapuram, Kilinochchi district on Thursday.

The police are yet to identify the skeleton, however have said the deceased appears to have died around two months earlier. 

Two Sri Lankan army intelligence officers who have been held over the disappearance of Sinhalese cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda have been released on bail this week.

The suspects are first accused Lt. Col. Shammi Arjuna Kumararatne and third accused Staff Sgt. Rajapaksa Mudiyanselage Priyantha Kumara Rajapaksa, reports The Island.

A total of seven suspects have now been released on bail by the Sri Lankan courts. A further two suspects continue to be held in remand.

See more from The Island here.

Sri Lanka’s Joint Opposition has challenged the government to provide extra security assurances for police officers in the North-East, following clashes in Kilinochchi between Sri Lankan police and locals protesting over the killing of two Jaffna University students.

"A posse of policemen was surrounded and beaten mercilessly in Kilinochchi by Tamil racists,” claimed Joint Opposition Leader Dinesh Gunawardena. “Who will ensure their safety?" he questioned.

Militarisation is the biggest threat faced by the people of Jaffna, according to the findings of an NGO report published last week.

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), together with the National Fisheries Solidarity Movement (NAFSO) in their report 'Under the Military's Shadow', on the effects of militarisation on local communities in the Jaffna Peninsula, found that as well as ongoing human rights violations, military commercial activities also perpetuated deprivation among communities.

The Sri Lankan Inspector General of Police, Pujith Jayasundara, reportedly admitted to the Daily News that the killing of two Jaffna University students last week was a "clear breach of discipline". 

Mr Jayasundara who was quoted by the state run website as saying "it is not clear whether the situation warranted a shooting as there was no robbery, an organised attack or life threatening incident which seemed to have occurred at the time," acknowledged there had been what he described as "certain shortcomings". 

The coalition of Tamil civil society groups, the Tamil Civil Society Forum this week condemned the Sri Lankan police's shooting dead of two Tamil students of the Jaffna University last Thursday. 

"The killings that took place now, have the power to deepen further the oppressive situation," TCSF said in a statement calling for a accountability and justice. 

"A credible investigation has to be conducted into these assassinations and the culprits must be brought to book. Otherwise, such assassinations are capable of instilling a very strong social fear."